


Quarantine Demands It

by Doncaster_Ren



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Anal Fingering, Bunker, Conflicted!Rey, Cunnilingus, F/M, Female Gaze, Fighting Kink, Horny!Rey, Kinda Dark Rey, Light Sadism, Masturbation, Mutual Masturbation, Quarantine, Rimming, Spanking, Virus, switch!kylo, there will be smut, touching above the waist without consent/while unconscious
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:27:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23556802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Doncaster_Ren/pseuds/Doncaster_Ren
Summary: A cannonverse quarantine fic with a sick, bleeding, and frightened Rey falling down at our dear Kylo's feet because she didn't know where else to go.The virus has spread across the Galaxy, killing estimates of 50 billion people already. Skywalker's bunker sounds like the perfect place to head towards during this time, but it turns out both Rey and Kylo had the same idea.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey
Comments: 38
Kudos: 110





	1. Race Against Time

Rey knew she was racing against time as she piloted the Millenium Falcon towards the planet of Ryloth, but her heart sank when she saw the clear presence of the First Order’s fleet above it. She had hoped, at least, that the Outer Rim would have been untouched by the pandemic. The entire Core and Inner Rim were the hardest hit by the spread of the virus, leaving billions upon billions dead despite the harsh laws that had been put in place to prevent its spread. Coruscant was as good as wiped out. That was the epicenter of the virus and the density of the population meant that it spread quickly. The galaxy’s response had been too slow, too hindered by disagreements among leaders. When it was clear that the virus didn’t care about borders or laws or trade agreements, the First Order stepped in. 

Troops had been sent across the Galaxy to restore order, to keep people in their homes, to prevent interplanetary travel. The virus was sneaky, though, and the virus was quick, so despite the stringency of the First Order’s endeavors, it seemed too little, too late. 

Rey and a handful of the remaining rebels were on the Millenium Falcon. They knew the laws against interplanetary travel, and the risk of being caught by the First Order, but it was their only chance of keeping the Rebellion alive. The rest of the rebels had died while Rey watched, powerless to help. They had been hiding out on Kerkoidia, but the planet was completely overwhelmed with the virus and lacked the medical resources needed to keep her friends alive.

There were only nine of them now, blindly fleeing disease. Or rather, attempting to escape death, because the disease came with them. Connix was already dead, drowned from the fluid and blood in her lungs. Medical supplies were what they needed, but the rest of the Galaxy needed them as well and they were in short supply, fiercely guarded by First Order and local governments alike. Rey and Finn agreed that heading further out from the center of the galaxy was their best bet and Naboo had been closest. The First Order had been already there, though, prepared to shoot down any ship that attempted to land. They needed to keep moving. No one said it aloud, but it was only a matter of time before they were all dead of the invisible enemy that already took one life and had infiltrated the cells of at least five more of them, most likely all. 

As they studied a galactic map, the name Ryloth struck her as familiar. It was far out in the Outer Rim and she knew nothing about it. But something in the force made her think of safety when she saw the name. And then it struck her, Luke’s notes! She ran to where she still hid the sacred texts and pulled out one that she knew had Luke’s handwriting throughout. Flipping rapidly, she stopped when she finally saw the word “Ryloth.”

“Finn, it’s the location of a safe-house Luke built! Look, he wrote about it here. He built up a stockpile of supplies and resources and he specifically states that there were medical supplies!”

Finn eyed her warily, took in a rasping breath, punctuated with a cough. “Okay, if you think it’s safe. How do we know no one else has ransacked it, though?”

“Only force users can find it!” Rey forced a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She knew this was their best chance, but she didn’t know if what she found there would be enough to keep death at bay for her dear friends. 

“Let’s give it a shot, then.” 

Finn’s cough had gotten far worse by the time they approached Ryloth as had the fear that pulsed in Rey’s blood. She was piloting the ship herself and keeping a distance from the rest of the crew as they tended to those who were getting increasingly sick and unable to rise from their bunks. As she put a shaking hand to her hot forehead, she knew the distance she kept was just a ruse to keep up moral and pretenses. To pretend that she wouldn’t become sick…. That she wasn’t already sick. 

Rey's eyes narrowed and her stomach sank as she looked out across the first order ships and recognized none other than the Supreme Leader’s own destroyer. She felt a chill that had nothing to do with the disease slowly gripping her body. Why would Kylo Ren come to this planet? She shook the question out of her head and prepared the landing coordinates for where she knew Luke’s bunker would be. Rey needed to clear her head for the task at hand. Evasive maneuvers would be likely needed in order to land as she had no gunner. No one was well enough to man it. 

As she approached, though, she was confused at the stillness of the First Order fleet. It was as if they didn’t see her. The ships were almost…lifeless. She closed her eyes and reached out with the force, looking for one specific life signature that she’d not searched out for in so long, but that she still remembered clearly. Kylo Ren. She felt him. Not strongly, but it was him. He was nearby. Not letting her guard down or trusting in the false security of the still ships, Rey began her descent towards the planet. 

“Rey,” she hears Finn wheeze over the comlink, “Hurry.” A deep, wet bout of coughing. She didn’t know if it was his or the others’. “I don’t think Rose will make the night.”

Rey turned off the comlink and choked out a sob, ignoring the wheeze that began to form in her own chest. The landing was surprisingly uneventful, but she could see that exiting the spacecraft would be another story. Ray steeled herself, letting the force give her strength as she holstered her lightsaber and roughly tied a cloth mask across her face. The fever was making her dizzy, but she needed strength if she was going to save her friends. As she thought of Rose and Finn dying in the same violent, painful way that took Poe from her down on Kerkoidia she felt a heat fill her that had nothing to do with the fever. The force would sustain her. The red pulse of heat powered her forward towards the boarding ramp. 

As the ramp lowered she looked out at the group of masked individuals holding a variety of weapons. Some blasters, some blades. These were not the First Order Stormtroopers, these were the locals. The Twi'leks were defending their planet themselves as a militia. She wondered if they had defended themselves against the First Order, or whether they were defending themselves because the First Order was clearly not getting the job done if her ease of landing was any indication. 

“Leave our planet, human, or I promise we will kill you.”

Rey looked backwards, up the ramp to where Finn stood. “Close the ramp, Finn. Only open it back up for me.”

Finn nodded and did as he was ordered. 

Rey then ignited her lightsaber and let the red heat flood through her as she began parrying and blocking the attack. She was full of rage and determination as she fought, though it was no easy fight given the number of Twi'lek fighters who came at her. The dizziness from the fever fought with the strength of the force for dominance in her body, but she fought on. An image of Poe coughing up blood , so much blood, cut across her mind, interweaving itself between images of the indigo blood that splattered as she cut another Twi’lek down, severing him in half with her lightsaber. The militia pressed on, though, no matter how many of them she slaughtered. 

Tears spilled in her eyes in anger and frustration. A terrible shriek tore from her chest when one of the Twi’lek fighters snuck behind her defenses and pierced her with a heavy blade. Gasping, she paused, and turned on the alien who jerked the weapon deeper into her flesh. Her eyes caught both the burning irises of the Twi’lek and the hull of the Falcon where her friends waited for death. The force in her turned from red hot to black and cold. She threw out her free hand, clenching her fingers into the form of claws. White lighting burst from her and she gave a roar of rage that filled the air. The world around her seemed to shatter and pulse and in an instant all of the militia lie dead. 

Rey let out a shuddering breath as she yanked the blade from her side. Only pausing a moment to look around her at the crushed skulls of the Twi’leks on the ground, she deactivated her saber and haltingly trugged towards the nearby bunker, using the force to guide her to its secret location. She sensed that more angry Twi’leks were coming after her. Hearing their alarm at what she’d done to the others and their furious cries as they pursue her pushed her forward. They were not wounded, though, so though they were not close, they would over take her if she hesitated. 

The strength she received from the force began to fade and the fever took a firmer root in her flesh, but it didn’t stop her from taking one shaky step after another. Another throb in the force slowly encroached upon her senses. As she walked closer to where she hoped she would find safety, supplies, and salvation, she felt a strong lifeforce. It was him. It got stronger as she approached the bunker hatch; she could nearly smell him, it was so strong. But she had no other options. None that didn’t involve laying down and waiting for death, anyway. None that didn’t involve the death of the remnants of the only family she’d known. 

The bunker was subterranean, like most other dwellings and on Ryloth, and had no above ground presence. A sloping, ramp-like path lead down to a heavy looking metal hatch. She grabbed hold of the handle and used the force to help her open it, then again used it to slam it closed behind her. And lastly her hand passed in front of it, activating whatever lock system was in place, to keep the Twi’lek militia out. 

Though she had felt his presence, she gasped in alarm as a mountain of black metal and cloth came storming towards her. Kylo bellows in rage as he pounded his gloved fist into the metal door. He was masked, so she couldn't see the fury in his eyes when he turned on her, grabbing a fist full of her tunic and pulling her towards him, so only her toes touched the ground. 

“What have you done?” he yelled at her, in a deep mechanical voice. 

“I…” the vertigo and dizziness had taken over her full force, now. “I didn’t know where else to go.” The fever and blood loss finally took claim on her consciousness and her head lolled and body fell limp as she passed out. 

Kylo Ren gasped and threw her limp body down to the ground. He had seen her blown pupils, and now saw the sheen of sweat in her hair and on her face, the racing pulse in her neck. He’d seen enough victims of this virus to know what he was looking at. Turning away from her, he focused on the panel of controls next to the hatch. He punched any combination he could imagine, trying to glean answers from it using the force, and finally just punched it in anger. 

“Kriff, Kriff, Kriff!” His chest rose and fell and he began to feel lightheaded. Not from fever, like the girl, but with panic. He fell to his knees in defeat. 

He glanced back at her, in anger initially, but then curiosity took over and calmed him slightly. 

“What in the…?”

A pool of red blood spilled across the floor, emanating from her back. Her clothes and face were also covered in blood, but indigo blood. Not her own, then. Twi’lek blood. It was… a lot of blood. Unable to resist, Kylo reached out to her, fingers stopping just before touching her face. He reached out with the force and into her mind, just glancing at the feelings and memories at the very forefront.

Kylo inhaled sharply when he felt the nearly overwhelming pulse of darkness that she had been enveloped in as she fought the militia. He’d seen her fight multiple times, had fought her himself, but never like this. He felt her anger and her fear in the memory and realized that the last handful of rebels were dying on the ship behind her. He’d seen trapped and wounded wild beasts mercilessly fight off poachers before and saw that same fear and rage in her. 

Kylo shouted out and broke the connection when he came to the memory of her crushing the skulls of the entire militia at once. He felt a sense of euphoria, though, at witnessing the raw power of darkness she had wielded. It was intoxicating. And terrifying. He would love to witness her harness that power again, but not here and not now. That would be undoubtedly fatal. His own mortality precariously hung in the balance as it was, just from her presence in this space, he thought darkly. 

He decided then and there that he would do whatever he could to save her. It’s not like this Bunker was equipped with a morgue, anyway….

Taking in a trembling breath, Kylo took in the enormity of the situation. Some things, he pushed out of his head as non life threatening problems. Others swirled around his mind as he came up with a plan of action. Taking a look at the pool of blood he knew that she would bleed out before too long if he did nothing. He recognized the weighty implications of her other symptoms and while he knew tending to them would not help her in the short run, ignoring them would increase his likelihood of contracting the virus. He had to carefully think about each point of contact between her and himself and then between himself and anything else in the bunker. This was a dangerous game.

For now he knew that though his own tunic and gloves had come in contact with the virus, they would prevent him from being affected. However, that was provided he took care not to touch anything else before sanitizing. That might be a difficult challenge. He would need something to stop the bleeding for now, that was his priority, but he knew any medical supplies were in the lower level of the bunker and he was loathed to risk cross contamination while rummaging through supplies. Perhaps he was paranoid, but his paranoia had kept him alive thus far. He finalized his plan and began to put it in action.

Grabbing the girl behind her back and knees, he lifted her and carried her to a cot that was fifteen meters away. He ripped the front of her blood soiled tunic and pushed it aside to take a look at the wound. It was wide, and he could guess deep. Blood was still pulsing from it. For now, he wadded up the torn tunic and pressed it to the wound. Hopefully it would slow the bleeding long enough for him to search for supplies. 

Rising to his feet, he shook his head at the insanity of his plan, but allowed his adrenaline to keep pushing him forward. He kicked off his boots, trousers, and tunic. His gloves he carefully removed and laid on the foot of the cot by the girl’s feet. The rest, he threw into the nearby sanitizer. He didn’t run it yet, though. The helmet he left on. He hadn’t taken it off in the presence of others in months. He stopped and washed his hands, counting to twenty as had become second nature. Then he headed down the corridor towards the stairs that descended to the lower levels of the bunker. 

Kylo walked through the rows upon rows of shelves lined with stockpiles of supplies, hoarded over years in case of an emergency. He stopped in front of a section that indicated it housed medical supplies. Kylo hadn’t been in the bunker long enough yet to search this section and take inventory, but he had been here as a boy and had a good guess of what he’d find. Medical tape, gauze, a bacta injector. What he wouldn’t give for a medic droid. He found surgical thread, though, and a needle. His eyes scoured the shelves for any sign of personal protective gear. Of course…. Skywalker thought in terms of wartime triage, where the enemy was a blaster and a bacta patch could solve all problems. It would solve the knife wound and prevent a staph infection, but it wouldn’t protect Kylo from the other invisible enemy. Cursing to himself, Kylo grabbed a bottle of 70% alcohol, found a tray to place all his treasures on, and stormed back upstairs. 

The girl was where he left her, but was looking pale. He knelt down next to her, placed the tray by his side. He carefully placed his gloves back on his hand. While he knew that he would be able to wash any part of him that touched her, he also knew that the real danger was if he nicked himself with the needle while stitching her up. That would cause a spread of infection that he could not just wash away with soap. He stopped and tried to allow the force to calm him and guide him. He couldn’t afford to waste time, but he also knew that he couldn't afford to make mistakes. Once he was ready, though, he flew into action. The force guiding his hands as he threaded the needle, quickly looping a knot and piercing the flesh in her side as soon as he moved the fabric away. The blood made it slippery to work on, but it was not an unfamiliar experience. He’d been at war a long time and knew the basics of field medicine well enough. In no time, the wound was stitched. It would definitely scar, but that was the least of anyone’s worry. He gently cleaned around the wound before placing clean gauze and taping it up. Lastly he grabbed the bacta injector and gave her a shot in the side.

When all was done he looked up at her and saw her face contorted in gritted determination. She was awake for that!? Quickly he passed a hand in front of her face and she fell asleep. His mind ruminated on her strength. He’d seen men twice her size weep at similar ministrations. And Kylo had been quick and efficient, but not gentle. 

He grunted as he rose, collecting all the contaminated items. Now that he was done with the most pressing task at hand, his mind began to wander again as he set about sanitizing everything that she’d been in contact with either directly or indirectly. Unlike when she first barged in through the hatch, Kylo’s anger wasn’t assaulting him physically. He was still angry, but the amount of adrenaline that had pulsed through his body was used during the act of saving her life. He now was better able assess the fate that had befallen him.

His first priority in any of this was to stay alive. That was what led him to this Bunker after all. As he wiped surfaces with alcohol, his mind strayed to the death and terror aboard the Finalizer. There was no doubt that the First Order had failed and failed spectacularly. And all because of a design oversight. His army was overconfident in their armor and it cost them their lives. Kylo wouldn’t allow himself to accept blame for that. He had inherited the army, after all, not built it. But whoever had designed it did not take into account the need for viral protection when it created the filters in the Troopers’ masks. With each new planet his Stormtroopers had landed on they breathed in the disease and then spread it to the rest of the troop. Above this planet his fleet was just a graveyard. 

When his tasks were completed and the sanitizer was running, Kylo went in search of the shower to sanitize himself. Keeping the helmet on, he stepped into the warm spray. The helmet was most likely the only reason he was alive. It was a more advanced design than the Stormtroopers’ helmets and relied on a multi step ionization filter. He began soaping up and scrubbing himself just shy of raw. He knew broken skin was more likely to be infected, after all. Then again, as he rinsed and soaped up again, maybe it was his paranoia that kept him alive, he wryly thought.

In the other room, Rey was having a fever dream. She was burning hot, yet shivering from the cold. The shivers wracked her body so violently that she heard her teeth loudly tapping against each other. Her mind was inundated with imagery of death. Poe’s blood, Connix, dead, under a sheet, the Twi’lek militia with their skulls crushed in. She remembered the force lightning that shot from her fingers. The pain of the knife wound in her side. The sharper, repetitive stabbing in her side as well. In her hallucinations she felt his presence as well. She felt as though she was nearly drowning in the overwhelming presence of Kylo Ren’s force signature. 

Eventually, she struggled to wake herself from her nightmares, and forced her eyes open. The hallucinations had not ended, though. Still they were of Kylo Ren. Why him? Why in death must she be reminded of him. Her body was unable to respond to any of her commands, only to shake uncontrollably. If she’d had more control, she was vaguely aware that she might have laughed. She wondered what others saw when death neared. Maybe an angel? A mother? Rey saw Kylo Ren naked, save for his mask and sheening with dampness. Was this an angel of death? Or a kink fantasy? If this was what her subconscious thought she needed to help usher her towards death, she’d roll with it. 

Unblinking, she stared at the towering figure. The frightening mask of a monster, the scarred shoulders, the muscular torso, and the black hairs which slowly trailed down to a dark mass of curls, ending in a cock, that though soft and resting against his thighs, still appeared heavy and large. She’d dreamed about men before, maybe even this man, if she were prepared to be honest with herself (which was difficult to do even when facing death), but this fever addled fantasy was… weird. The man seemed agitated. He paced, sat down and then rose abruptly. Finally he came to stand hesitantly in front of her. Would he become hard? She wondered. Would he touch her? Force his cock into her? Her mind flickered through the possibilities of what the man could be capable of committing against her flesh. She prepared herself for any variety of possibilities, but she wasn’t prepared for what he did. She was not prepared for him to reach over her and throw a blanket over her shivery body. The words he spoke made more sense, but at the same time they made no sense at all. Of course, hallucinations fueled by death didn’t need to make sense.

“If I should die because of you, I swear on the Force, I will murder you.” 

Rey knew she had taken plenty of lives in her lifetime, though part of her mind knew she didn’t currently have the strength to kill this particular man. But if he was her angel of death, she was willing to accept her punishment. 

Kylo waved his hand in front of her once again, forcing sleep to take her. He then walked to the cot on the opposite side of the space they now shared and sat down heavily. Thoughts weighed heavy on his mind and he knew he would struggle to find respite in sleep. His eyes stayed on the girl’s slumbering form until sleep finally took him as well.


	2. The virus

Rey’s fever broke in the night and she woke, realizing that she’d been reprieved from death for now. She rolled over, wincing in pain as she began coughing. It passed, though, and through blurred eyes, she looked over and saw Kylo Ren. Not the one from her fever dream, or even the one from their force bond encounters from what seemed like so long ago now. She could not see the man’s face, or those emotive eyes. All of him was covered in black. He’s now the Kylo from Takodana. The monster in a mask. 

She sat silently, her eyes focused on his form, and he allowed it. The only sound in the room was a rasping wheeze from deep in her chest. Kylo was a statue, perched on the edge of the bunk across from her. His forearms pressed against his thighs, hands hanging down. The only part of him in motion were his hands. Clenching and releasing. She remembered a time when there was an open bond between them, before she had put all her energy into closing it off. She imagined if she opened the bond wide once more that she would be able to feel his agitation. 

His deep voice broke the silence. “How did you know about this place?”

“I…” her voice was so rough. “I read about it. Luke made a note in a section of the sacred texts.”

“Skywalker gave you the sacred texts!?” The incredulity was audible in his voice. 

“No…” cough. “I stole them.”

“Hmph… ever the scavenger.”

She didn’t deny it, or object, which Kylo took as an indication of the severity of her illness more than anything. She did erupt into a violent coughing fit, though. In response Kylo stood up and strode silently out of the room, leaving Rey alone with her muddled thoughts.

Rey tried to make sense of the swirl of images and emotions in her mind. She considered how she’d felt that somehow she had escaped death, she considered Kylo’s agitation, considered his presence, she considered the pain in her side every time she coughed. Then she considered her coughing and the … hallucinations she’d had. She felt like there were important pieces of information slipping just out of reach. But at least one thought rose to the forefront of her mind with certainty. She was very sick. She had known it was a possibility when she’d left the Falcon to search for supplies. Now that her fever had broken she became aware of what a terrible mistake she’d made coming to this place. Kylo Ren wasn’t about to help her friends and all she was going to do was put his life at risk. 

Rey pushed herself up and looked across the room towards the hatch. Her eyes caught sight of where her lightsaber had fallen and rolled into a corner. A barely formed plan hatched in her mind and she became determined to get away before Kylo returned. Rolling over, off of the cot, though, she found that her legs no longer followed her commands and she crumpled in a wheezing pile on the floor. 

“Kriff!” an angry, mechanical voice reverberated loudly through the small space. Rough hands picked her back up and placed her on the cot.

“Need to go…” she wheezed weakly.

“Go?” Kylo froze. “To the… fresher?” He inwardly groaned at the realization of all that keeping her alive and sanitary might entail.

“No… I’m putting you in danger. I shouldn’t have come here.” More coughing.

“Idiot,” he growled. “You can barely walk. How far do you think you’ll get?”

Kylo continued cursing through his voice modulator as he went about collecting items from here and there. The last thing she expected when he came back was for him to kneel beside her with a cup of hot liquid that he held to her lips. She eyed it suspiciously.

“It’s just broth,” the deep voice says in response to the unasked question.

She was so thirsty, she drank the whole thing. He then put an arm behind her back, placing his hand under her arm and lifted her to her feet. Her knees and ankles buckled under her and she went limp.

“No! You’re the strongest kriffing woman I’ve had the misfortune of meeting. Try again!”

Rey focused on nothing other than the feeling of her legs beneath her. She definitely didn’t pay attention to the gloved hand under her arm, the long fingers of which reached all the way around her ribcage and to just brush under her breast. She didn’t pay attention to the warmth of his body, the frightening visage of his mask, or the mechanical sounding curse words coming from it. And she definitely didn’t pay attention to the moment he paused and stared down at her to judge whether she needed more assistance after helping her sit (pants still on) on the privy. She leaned forward instinctively, reaching for her waistband, then paused.  
“I’m fine,” she said staring at a fixed point on the floor. 

Kylo wasted no time turning on his heels and leaving her alone. 

She was more confident when she stood up. Some of her vertigo had dissipated and she focused her energy on walking. She stopped at the sink and quickly washed her hands. She gasped, though when she looked up at her reflection. She was pale, her hair was a fright from her fever sweats, and she only wore her breast band, but the real shock was that she was covered in blood. And not all her own… Indigo blood had splattered across her face, chest, and arms. She looked down and saw her white trousers appeared to have been soaked in blood. She eyed her own blood on her side that leads down to bandages that weren’t there before. She winced a little as she touched it. 

Rey shoved all of this aside as things she didn’t have the energy to think about. She had energy to keep standing and to walk out that door. As she exited the fresher she came face to face with Kylo Ren’s chest. He held out a gloved hand. An offering of assistance. She waved it away and slowly ploded towards the hatch. 

“I can’t be here.”

“I told you, Rey…”

“No! I have to get away from here. From you…”

“The quarantine laws, Rey…” He knew what she would discover when she reached the hatch and he’d just as soon put that off for as long as possible.

“Fuck your quarantine laws, Ren! This was a mistake.”

Kylo rolled his eyes at the truth in her statement, but then waved a hand and she collapsed, unconscious, in his arms. He placed her back in the bunk, then pulled out a bacta injector and injected her near the stab wound. It wouldn’t do anything for the viral infection, sadly, but it would at least keep her from getting staph or some other secondary infection. He hoped she would stay asleep for the rest of the day, but if not, he’d have to keep putting her under. Based on what he’d seen from her memories the night before, he couldn’t risk her having a panic attack in this confined space. He doubted he’d survive that. Thankfully the virus was keeping her somewhat muddled and sedate, but he wasn’t about to risk placing his trust in that.

Kylo turned away from her and looked all around him and contemplated all the possible points of viral contact. He ripped his clothes off again, throwing them in the sanitizer with far more force this time adding a deep growl for extra measure. He then went about re-sanitizing the rest of the space.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Kylo sequestered himself far away from the girl while she continued to sleep. The Bunker was built in the style of any traditional Ryloth dwelling, carved deep into the sandstone mesas. The first level closest to the surface was the main dwelling and perhaps the most comfortable, but Kylo was down on the third level where the storage shelves were. Kylo sat on the ground and removed his helmet, grateful for the respite from its continual presence. He picked up the ration of soup he’d brought down with him and ate as he ruminated.

He couldn’t in good conscience claim that he definitely deserved to be alive. In fact, one might say that him being the supreme leader of the galaxy wherein estimates claim 50 billion individuals had died from a virus that the First Order was unable to stop due to a failure in helmet filter design should make Kylo perhaps even more deserving of death. But here he was. It seemed more and more likely that this was a carefully orchestrated punishment. Why else would the Force have spared him so long only to place a virus ridden harbinger of death at his feet. 

Kylo turned his thoughts towards the shelves that surrounded him which had been obsessively stockpiled by his uncle. He did wonder if Skywalker's paranoia had passed to him and aided him in his survival. He remembered visiting here when he was a young boy as his uncle had rambled off the purpose for each item that he deemed important enough to stock in his bunker. Why these specific rations would last the longest, why these medical supplies would be useful. There were tools and spare parts, various raw materials, seeds, and special types of lights that simulated the solar rays. 

As a boy Kylo had been convinced that his uncle had thought of everything, had prepared for anything. This had been why Kylo was drawn here after the First Order fell. Hermiting away here as the galaxy's ecosystem restored itself didn’t seem the worst idea. Up until the girl’s dramatic and bloody entrance. Now he was less than convinced that his uncle had thought of everything. Now his preparations seemed a bit shortsighted. Not that as a boy he recalled asking “okay, but what happens if you get locked inside here with a plague victim?” 

Kylo rolled his eyes. Yes, this definitely must be his punishment. The force was clearly finally letting the ax fall with the cruelest stroke.

Well, Kylo wasn’t going to give up that easily and he would be damned if he’d let that girl be the death of him. Deciding it was time to stop dwelling and to find a way to engage his brain, kylo hopped up to his feet. He grabbed a datapad and set about creating what would become a comprehensive catalog of everything that was stored here.

He’d spent hours down there counting, checking, double checking and recording. Maybe it wasn’t the most rewarding work, but it would be useful and it kept his brain busy, which he really needed at that moment. He knew he shouldn’t stay down there forever, though. He wearily trudged back upstairs to check on the girl. 

When he approached the main room where she still slept in the bunk carved in stone, he was suddenly struck with how absolutely filthy she was, encrusted in the blood of her enemies as well as her own. The night sweats appeared to have made everything look even worse. He knew with the deep assurity of a war hardened knight that she undoubtedly stunk. His mask filtered that for him, but even the mere thought of his living space reeking of sweat and battle gore was enough to turn his stomach. 

He had just enough presence of mind to feel guilty for leaving her in such a state. Even from the perspective of sanitation, it wasn’t the best idea. 

Pausing to assess the most rational order of tasks he now had at hand (that would cause the least cross contamination), Kylo removed his clothes and stowed them away. Tragically at this point, he only had one set. Hands and bodies are washable, he firmly reminded himself before approaching the girl’s side. He could tell that her slumber was now natural, not the force induced one he’d placed her in earlier. 

Kylo hesitated. He knew this would be easier with her cooperation… unless she fought against him or had a panic attack. Picturing what she’d done to the militia, he decided that unconscious was the way to go. He knew both the bedding and her clothes would need to be cleaned. Blood was on everything. Making a decision, he started with her shoes, which were immediately thrown into the sanitizer. Pants followed, Kylo at first feeling compelled to avert his eyes from the patch of hair at her center. The last item to be removed was her breast band. This time he did look, letting his eyes run down the length of her body before shaking his head and forcing himself to focus on the task at hand. 

He picked her up and placed her on the floor so he could rip the sheets off of her bed and throw them in the sanitizer as well. He went to place a fresh sheet down, but stopped as he noticed the edge of the tunic he’d ripped off of her, tucked into the far corner of the bunk. It was all but useless now, but he threw it into the sanitizer as well before running it. 

Finally he turned back to the girl and as before, placed one hand behind her back and one under her knees and lifted her towards the fresher. His ability to maintain any sense of emotional distance from the task at hand was interrupted when he caught sight of the two of them in the mirror. His jaw went slack. The image of her in his arms like a bride and them both naked, him save for his helmet was so incredibly erotic that he had to stifle a groan. He imagined it was a perverse version of how he held her on Takodana. “Kriff,” he swore as he sharply looked away from the mirror. 

Kylo sat her on the floor of the shower and carefully turned on the warm spray, angling it to avoid her face. He liberally used soap and cloth to clean the sweat and blood from her skin. There was no point in not looking at her now, but he focused on being as methodical and efficient in his actions as possible. This was life and death, not a fucking brothel, after all. He carefully shifted her and removed her hair ties from the three buns on the back of her head. Moving her around as gently as possible, he allowed the water to pour over the filthy strands as he attempted to work the knots loose. As he cleaned it, plenty of indigo blood was rinsed out of her hair and down the drain. 

When Rey was no longer a battlefield’s worth of blood and sweat, he carried her back to her bunk. He double checked her stitches and laid her down.

He stared down at her, perplexed. He honestly couldn’t believe that she hadn’t woken. Frowning, he placed a hand on her forehead to feel for a fever. At the moment it seemed fine. Now that she was clean, he looked down at her body again. Really looked this time. The first impression of her was that she was delicate and frail. Her breasts were small, her waist was thin. But there was strength there as well, long muscles ran down her thighs hinting at that strength. He told himself that she was no gentle innocent. He’d made the mistake in believing that when he first met her. No. This girl… woman? She was a killer. 

He wondered if the others, the traitor, the pilot… his mother… had felt the darkness in her like he could. Kylo breathed in deep through his mask and focused on that memory of darkness he’d felt radiating off of her last night. It was heady indeed. He meditated on it while he held her head in his hand. The darkness made him feel powerful, but also reckless. He let his bare hand slide down over her neck, down her chest and landing on her warm breast, the pad of his thumb brushing against her nipple, which hardened to his touch. It had been some time since he'd been within six feet of… anyone really. He felt his lust surge alongside his own connection to the darkness. He grasped her roughly and found himself leaning his head down towards the soft mound of flesh he held in his hand, wanting nothing more in that moment than to take it into his mouth. 

Reality fell down hard on him, though, like a forceful blow. He stopped abruptly and pushed himself away from her, remembering the mask he wore that would keep her dewy flesh out of his mouth. “Kriff!” he cursed, rising abruptly to his feet. He grabbed a blanket and threw it over her, then stormed out of the room. Cursing her, cursing his foolishness, cursing the helmet that was the main thing keeping him safe from the potentially fatal airborne illness she carried with her.

Once back in the shower, he ferociously scrubbed every inch of himself three times over. And then, all while letting a litany of curses fly from his mouth, he grabbed his cock and pounded that just as ferociously, punishingly even. When his orgasm took him it was while the memory of the girl channeling force lightning through her fingertips flashed through his head. He fell to his knees afterward and let out a moan of self reprobation. He felt it was pretty safe to say that if the scavenger didn’t kill him, he was sure his own idiocy would.

Kylo kept his distance when he returned to the main room. Avoiding looking at her as he carefully sprayed disinfectant across the floor where he’d laid her earlier and any other places he felt there might have been cross contamination. As he worked he listened her breathing. Wheeze in…. Wheeze out… Repeat. The rate was steady, comforting even. 

Before shutting off the lights he did glance over at her. He was glad for his mask, since it hid the surprise on his face as he turned to find her staring right at him. She showed no discernible emotion as she looked at him. But there was no doubt that she was indeed looking. Her eyes ran down his body, starting at his mask and slowly panning all the way down his naked flesh. 

Kylo slammed the lights off, casting the room into darkness and forcing her to break her gaze. She said nothing. The pace of her wheezing breath changed in no way. He felt on edge as he crawled into his own bunk, but the steady rhythm of her breaths eventually lulled him to sleep.


	3. Somewhere Between Dreaming and Waking

Kylo jerked awake, startled by a change in the force. Panic. It was still pitch black in the room, but he did not need the light to know the girl was not okay. 

The breathing was now much louder, rattling and wet. There was no rhythm to it any more. The attempts to draw in air sounded more like screams. He dimly turned on a light to get a better look. This time, he could see the fear in her eyes as she looked up at his mask. But the fear was not of him. She could not breath. He’d seen this stage of the illness numerous times. The fluid in her lungs was winning the battle against the air. She would essentially drown if he did nothing.

Kylo found his own breathing becoming chaotic and his thoughts turning to panic as her overwhelming emotions flooded his senses. He forced himself to block her out and steady himself as his brain went through what options were at his disposal. The more he went over ideas in his head the more he realized that Luke’s bunker did not have everything. Kylo thought to those he knew survived. They’d had a respirator. Kylo rolled his eyes in frustration. Then he paused. His hand came up to his helmet and he remembered reading the design specs from a similar one designed for his grandfather. He immediately formed a plan. First step, he pulled open the sanitizer and grabbed a long piece of beige cloth and ran down to the lower levels of the bunker. In Luke's workshop, he pulled off his helmet and pulled any number of tools and parts towards him and set to work. He prayed to the force that this would work. The force seemed to guide his hands as he made all the adjustments. 

Feeling satisfied, he grabbed the cloth (one of her arms wraps…) and began wrapping it around his head, covering his mouth and nose in multiple layers of cloth. It was not the best option, but given enough layers it wasn’t the worst. 

When he came back to her and knelt beside her bed he was not at all surprised that she fought against him. 

“Calm yourself,” he spoke through the cloth mask. 

He held her head still between his hands and looked her dead in the eyes. Her eyes landed on a human face for the first time since she’d been in the bunker. Though his mouth and nose were covered, Kylo saw the moment that her brows creased and then rose in recognition of the eyes that bore into her own. 

Though Rey still felt panic in the face of death, she felt a slight relief when she met the eyes she had once stared into on Ach-to. 

“Kylo,” she gasped.

“Yes, it’s Kylo. I’m going to help you breathe, but you need to trust me.” Even as he spoke the words he knew that it was a tall order to expect of her. That made him all the more relieved when she simply nodded her head in solemn acceptance. 

He let go of her face and raised the helmet above the crown of her head, carefully lowering it down and activating it to close over her jaw. He could sense through the force that her panic initially grew when she was locked into the helmet. Once on her, though, it began performing the task he’d redesigned it to do. The sound of it was very different than it had been before the mods. Rey could hear the sound of air hissing in and out and then realized it was forcing her own breath to follow its rhythm. It was forcing air into her lungs. She could… breath. Finally she let go of a small amount of the tension from her shoulders and allowed the mask to do its work. 

“You should stay upright for a while longer,” Kylo found himself suggesting. And because he was acting entirely on impulse at this point, he crawled behind her in the bunk, careful to keep her covered by the blanket, but holding her upper body up against his own. This allowed the fluid to stay away from her airway, but also gave her the ability to relax. He had previously sensed her shaking in effort to remain upright, but soon her body stilled. 

Kylo still felt the rumble of the fluid in her lungs, but he could tell the panic had gone and the mask was doing its job, bringing air into her lungs at a steady rate. He closed his eyes and let his head fall back against the wall, his own breaths and heart rate finally slowing to mirror her mechanically produced ones. He wondered if surely the force could have found a more efficient and quick way to punish him for his transgressions.

Rey placed her hand over Kylo’s and lightly squeezed it in thanks, startling Kylo out of his brief calm.

“You’re going to be the death of me, Rey,” he grunted.

Rey did not respond at first, but she moved her hand off of his. After a minute she finally spoke “Can you keep talking? I’m… afraid to sleep.”

Kylo’s mouth drew into a firm line as he contemplated the request. Once he started talking, though, he found it easy to do.

“Rey, the viral infection has moved deep into your lungs. You were unable to breath because there was too much fluid in your bronchial pathways.”

Rey sunk deeper into a state of relaxation as Kylo droned on. Her state of delirium was too intense for her to understand much of what he was saying, but the low tone and the rumble from his chest calmed her and grounded her.

“The respiration modulator I configured is comparable to similar devices I’ve studied the specifications of. I reversed the ionization filter so that while you are wearing it the particles you exhale will be neutralized. This is of no benefit to you, but rather to offer myself a certain peace of mind as I have had to surrender my main protection against the virus. In retrospect, given more time I might have thought of an alternate solution.”

Kylo frowned as he stumbled upon this realization. Surely, even before this event, before the fall of the First Order he should have been able to think up a solution. He sighed. It was far too late for him to dwell on that now. This was the hand he was dealt and he could only move forward. 

“Are you still awake?” When there was no reply, Kylo carefully moved off of the bunk and allowed her helmeted head to fall back down onto the mattress. 

Through the panic of the early morning, Kylo found inspiration. As he thoroughly cleaned himself in the shower he began going over design specs in his head and contemplated the various tools and raw materials at his disposal.

Kylo dressed in his trousers and under tunic and headed back to the lower levels. It occurred to him that if he could reconfigure his helmet he felt confident he could create a better personal face mask and perhaps an air filtration device for filtering particles in the air of the main room. 

Kylo sketched and calculated and soldered wires. He paused briefly to consume enough rations to give him energy before returning to his work. He allowed himself to muse how satisfying it was to build and create. Much of his life recently seemed to have been spent destroying things instead. He was quick to shake that ugly thought away.

When he was finally finished, he took the new face mask and placed it over his mouth and nose. This was designed partially of tightly woven cloth but also contained a built in filtration device. After knotting it tightly in place, Kylo grabbed the larger room filter he’d built and returned up to the main level.

Worry at leaving the girl alone for so long needled at the edges of his mind. She appeared to be asleep when he returned, though, so he focused on wiring the new filtration unit into the main room’s electric circuit. He was fastidious in his work, since he was working with a large amount of wall current, so he initially missed it as the girl began stirring. It wasn’t until the filter was finally installed correctly that he glanced back at her bunk.

It was nearly impossible to tell with the helmet covering her face whether she was awake or not. But if she were in fact awake, she was not very self aware. The grey wool blanket she’d been wrapped in had been shoved aside, leaving Kylo very aware that it hadn’t occurred to him to redress her since cleaning the blood off of her. 

“Rey… are you awake?” He spoke in a whisper, not wanting to wake her if she was still slumbering. He frowned. It also wouldn’t do to startle or embarrass her. He quietly approached and as he did he opened his mind and reached out to just gently brush against her consciousness. She was definitely asleep, but he sensed she was dreaming. He pulled back quickly from her mind before she became aware of the intrusion.

It was his plan to throw the blanket back over her as he’d done before. He truly meant to do so. But then as he neared her side, she sighed and then she kriffing moaned. A warmth took up residence in Kylo’s neck and began spreading across his face like an invading army. 

The moan was followed by a shift in the girl’s body. One hand brushed over her own breast before resting over her heart. The other arm was spread out as if in supplication, palm up, fingers twitching faintly. The warmth became a blaze and Kylo gasped when one leg bent at the knee and then fell to the side, exposing the merest glimpse of her center. Kylo’s breathing became heavy and erratic when she not so subtly rolled her hips upward and moaned again. 

He was transfixed, held prisoner against all reason as he watched the girl undulate under the influence of her own dreams. His teeth bit hard into his lip as he stifled his own groan. He could not force himself to look away. His ravenous eyes gorged on the whole scene before him like a feast. Just the body of the girl exposed, on display in the throes of somnambulant passion. With the helmet on it might have been any girl laying there. It should have been like that. But Kylo knew those hands, knew that scar on her arm. This was Rey, the scavenger, the bane of his existence, nude save for his own helmet and writhing and moaning. 

Kylo pressed his eyes shut only briefly before they flew back open to drink in the sight. His hands flew to the opening of his pants and before he could think better of it, he pulled his rapidly swelling cock out of its too tight confines. He continued to bite his lip as his fist flew up and down the length of his throbbing member. He barely blinked as he imagined touching the girl. Not just touching her. Owning her with his hands, with his mouth, with his cock. A keening nearly escaped his throat as he contemplated that just barely peeking out core between her legs. He imagined how hot it would be, how velvety soft, how wet. Kylo nearly lost all control as his orgasm ripped through him, bringing him again to his knees as he sprayed white ropes of cum across the floor. 

With his breath still erratic and his lust sated, he could not look back up at the girl. He tucked himself back into his trousers and quickly went about cleaning his seed off of the floor. Though his breathing was slowing, it was still shaky. It felt as if he would begin crying at any moment from the shame that welled up in him. Angry at his impulsive reaction to the girl, Kylo punched the wall. He threw an open palm towards the girl, causing her to fall into a deeper, dreamless level of sleep and then used the force to cover her with the blanket. He cursed his sentimentality and weakness.

Yanking open the sanitizer, Kylo pulled out her clothes that had been left there, neglected. He sorted the torn tunic out from the pile and stormed downstairs with it. Quickly finding the needle and threat that he’d cataloged the day before, Kylo sat down and began stitching up the front of it where he’d torn it previously.

Despite his shame, self reprobration, and simmering anger, Kylo placed her clothes back on her with the care of a man worshiping at the altar of his creator. The breast band was wrapped with care, each leg was slid into the trouser legs as if they were a cargo worth their weight in gold. The arm bands were even returned with every attention to detail. The pattern of the wrappings recreated based on the memory ingrained into his soul. Kylo knew everything about these arms. Arm that had wielded his grandfather’s own lightsaber and had flayed Kylo’s own face open. Arms that had once reached out across the literal galaxy to touch him. 

The act of restoring her modesty felt like an apology. A penance for his transgression. He would have loved nothing more than to absolutely ravish the girl. To wreck her. Destroy her. But he could not risk forgetting that the girl held the power to destroy him just as thoroughly in return. He’d let her destroy him too many times before. He wasn’t sure how many more times he could let her continue. Though he certainly could not deny that he seemed a glutton for punishment where she was concerned. A clenching pain throbbed in his chest as he contemplated the ways she could destroy him that had nothing to do with his mortal life. 

* * * * * * * * * * * * *  
In the days that followed as Rey drifted in and out of consciousness Kylo observed that she either didn’t have the energy to fight or she had accepted her fate of being in the bunker. In truth, the days blurred in Rey’s mind. Being inside the helmet was like constantly being adrift in a dream world. The sound of her breath rushing like the waves on Ach-To, so even when she was awake she often fell into a meditative trance. She mostly dreamed of floating on those waves, though sometimes the waves became a solid touch of hands caressing her and she dreamed of being carried away by passion instead. 

From time to time she’d be ripped from her cocoon as the helmet was taken off from her head and warm salty broth was fed to her before being immersed back into darkness. 

The days passed in the same rhythm. Sleeping, dreaming, removing the helmet, strong arms helping her to remember how to walk. Sleeping more. Meditating. Awareness of a world outside of her visions of ocean waves danced at the periphery of her mind. But those thoughts had a painful edge to them, so she pushed them away. 

The day comes, though when the rattle in her lungs is gone and the spikes in her body temperature no longer plague her. On that day the helmet comes off and doesn't return. Instead it is replaced by a simple cloth face mask. As Kylo’s fingers knotted the mask behind her head, Rey looked up at his blank face. She recalled those eyes being quite emotive, so she assumed he was deliberately schooling his features. She wondered if he would say anything, but once the cloth mask was tied in place, he turned around and walked out of the room, apparently as unprepared to answer questions as she was to ask them.

But the air on her face and the light in her eyes seemed to be shocking her into a level of consciousness she hadn’t felt in days. Her mind desperately wanted to object. Seemingly slapping down each question that tugged at her. But she could no longer hide in sleep. She was suddenly very much awake and very much aware that though her limbs did not have the same strength in them, she could not deny that she felt better than she had recently. Her lungs breathed easy, her head did not ache, her eyes were more focused.

Rey found herself glancing at the space around her. The dwelling had apparently been carved into the very sandstone of the mesa. There was no natural light in the space, but artificial lighting bounced off of the yellow hued stone in a way that evoked warmth and comfort. The bunk she lay on was carved out of the rock in a type of alcove. Rey carefully sat up and turned to let her legs touch on the floor. Directly across from her was another alcove also carved in the stone wall. It was slightly larger than her own and the tangle of blankets indicated that it had been slept in recently. Rey’s brows furrowed at the sight. It didn’t occur to Rey that she’d ever considered Kylo Ren as the type of man to not make his bed. She shook that thought out of her head and let her eyes wander more. 

The other side of the room had a round table with a curved bench around it, carved out of the same stone. Along the wall was a sink and some durasteel built appliances. On her right she saw a hallway where she knew the fresher was and a set of stone stairs. Then to the left of the dwelling space was the hatch she’d entered through. 

Rey’s eyes widened and a gasp emitted from her mouth as she focused on the hatch for the first time in days. Her legs shook slightly, but supported her as she rose. She had vague memories of strong hands helping her walk back and forth throughout her illness, but she was no more eager to dwell on that than she had been at the time. She was only aware as much as was required to be grateful as her legs had the strength to carry her towards her goal. Escape! Adrenaline fueled her as she grabbed for the door, but only left her frustrated when it would not open. 

“Gah!” She exclaimed as she yanked harder. “Why won’t you open!?"

Alongside her physical strength and frustration, the adrenaline began fueling her consciousness and memories. Unbidden, images flooded her mind. Kylo yelling and hitting the door with his fist when she arrived, her fight with the militia, Finn telling her to hurry, Poe dying… With these images came a rising tide of failure, desperation, and panic. 

Kylo felt her emotions like an explosion in the Force. They were especially potent after she’d been calm for so long. He raced up the steps two at a time, unsurprised to find her struggling with the door.

“I’m glad to see you’re feeling better,” he said dryly.

Rey looked up at Kylo with shock and panic in her eyes before they hardened. “How long have I been here?” she demanded, accusation threading through her voice, thinking of her friends who were sick and needed her.

“Eleven days.” The words he spoke were innocuous enough, but his face darkened in warning.

The answer hit Rey like a blow. She had no idea she’d been there so long. She could only think of her friends dying.

“Let me out, you fucking prick!” she screeched, “You can’t keep me here!’”

Kylo’s face was now a maelstrom of rage. He had expected her to panic, but the implication that he was to blame for any of this galled at him. He’d managed to maintain his own calm while she’d been at her sickest, but now that she was healing such reserve seemed unneeded. 

As the anger rose up in him, he realized that it would give him pleasure to tell her the truth. “Do not place the blame for this at my feet. This is a bed of your own making, scavenger,” he spat. “You’re the one who trapped both of us here when you arrived.” 

Distrust pulsed off of her, but she paused nonetheless, staring now at the door. 

“Liar…” she yanked at the door again as if she could force the words Kylo spoke to disappear. 

“Did you even read all of Skywalker’s notes in those texts you stole? Did you know about the Force Lock before you barged in here?”

“I…” Rey’s eyes darted back and forth as she struggled to recall. 

“I will take that as a no, then. I on the other hand had read all of the notes and knew not to set the fucking Force lock when I entered.” 

The night she’d entered this place had been a blur to her. Had she used the force to lock the door? She did recall acting in panic, instinctually, and without thought. Acting out of fear. 

“Perhaps it was an error on my part not to have set it, though. I had assumed I was secure based on the simple fact that non force users can’t even get in the bunker. I refuse to blame myself for not predicting your idiocy.”

Rey deflated slightly at his words, but could not bring herself to trust the man. “But I don’t remember setting the force lock… How do I know you’re telling the truth? That you didn’t set the lock yourself to trap me here?”

Though Rey’s eyes and voice spoke only of distrust and accusation, Kylo laughed in response. He quickly schooled his features, however, and barked back “Do you take me for an imbecile? Or a man so devoid of his senses that he’d willingly lock himself inside for an indeterminate amount of time with a kriffing plague victim!?” 

Though the anger and danger emanating off of Kylo Ren was nearly palpable, the dread that began wrapping itself around Rey’s chest had little to do with that.

“An indeterminate….?” she began, but was unable to finish as she fell heavily down to her knees. “How…? What…?”

Kylo could feel her fear at voicing the question, but he was not feeling generous enough to make it easy on her. 

“How what Rey?” He prompted, not kindly.

He waited silently glowering down at her as the seconds stretched to minutes. 

Finally, eyes not raising from the floor, Rey took a deep breath and steeled her jaw. “How does the force lock work? How do we open it?”

“If you’d actually read the notes…” Kylo could not help jabbing, “instead of barging off like a drugged up Rathtar, you would know that there is no way of knowing how long the force lock will be engaged. It passes control of the lock directly to the Force itself. Its purpose and design is to keep us safe. When the danger outside these walls dissipates it will unlock itself. Presumably when the virus is eradicated.” 

Months then. Years? Only the Force knew. Rey felt as though her blood was freezing in her veins at this thought. 

Kylo had not been looking forward to the day the girl came face to face with the reality that they were trapped in this hole. He expected panic, anger, violence even. So it was with wary trepidation that he watched for her reaction. Her face was still down-turned, so at first all he saw of her response was her shoulders shaking up and down. Was she crying? No. It was with shock that he realized she was laughing. 

“Is this funny to you?” he barked angrily.

"No, actually,” she said, calming her laughter and turning to look up at Kylo, serious now. “Well maybe…”

He couldn’t see her mouth past the cloth mask, but Kylo imagined it held a smirk. 

“Perhaps it’s the force that has the sense of humor. Clearly it has decided that I’m safer locked in close quarters with the formidable Supreme Leader and ‘Jedi Killer’ Kylo Ren than I am out there!” 

Kylo glared down at her, sensing there was an insult towards himself threaded in her statement. He had of course come to a similar realization days previously. That while his chances of finding death at the girl’s hand were shockingly high, they had to be lower than the chance of death beyond that door. That was among the list of (arguably questionable) reasons he had for deciding to heal her rather than let her die. It occurred to him that the possibility that the risk to his life was greater inside than outside might persuade the door to open. And that possibility of risk was infinitely higher with the girl’s presence than without.

That being said, the thought that the girl jumped to the assumption that the force somehow deemed himself harmless stoked Kylo’s ire. 

“Fuck you!” he bellowed. "I am not some neutered loth cat for your amusement!” He reached down and grabbed her jaw tightly within his strong fingers. “You are alive because I have allowed it and you’d do well to remember that.” He let go of her face, pushing her back harshly as he did so.

Fury blazed in Rey’s eyes as she glared up at him, hand reaching up to her own abused jaw and touching the face mask that covered it. 

“What is this mask anyway…?” she wondered aloud as she traced its contours. “It's not my own….” 

“No,” Kylo answered curtly. “Yours was garbage. I made that one myself. It is for my protection. You will leave it on when I’m in your presence if you don’t wish to be added to the list of Jedis I’ve killed,” he said with a pointed snarl. “Your quarantine for what it’s worth will be up in three more days. You can remove it then. Assuming we haven’t killed each other before then.”

With that he turned on his heels and stormed away and down the stairs. “Eat the soup while it’s hot” was the last thing she heard from him before he disappeared back downstairs. 

Rey sat in the same spot, massaging her jaw and trying not to be overwhelmed by all the new information she was left to process. The inappropriate laughter was a forgotten memory and now the tightness in her chest felt more akin to a precursor to tears. Not one to give in to melancholy, she tamped it down. She needed time to process this, of which she supposed she probably had a lot at the moment.... 

As she slowly rose to her feet, Rey’s eyes caught sight of the soup sitting on the table. It was then that she realized that she was starving. It was nothing more than enriched broth, but it was warm and tasty and filled her belly. As she drank the broth Rey allowed her mind to explore the bits and pieces of memory of the last several days, trying to sort between true memory and delirium induced ones. The broth itself she remembered from one of the brief moments her head was removed from the darkness of the heavy helmet. 

That thought led her mind to wander over the implications of Kylo Ren willingly surrendering his own helmet. Most of her memories of wearing the helmet were a blur. Not much stood out aside from the pervasive sound of the respirator and the smell of iron and what she assumed could only be described as “Kylo Ren.” 

Rey shook her head to dispel that memory as she rose, carrying the bowl to the sink to wash it. She then wandered over to where she recalled the fresher being. She chalked that up to being another confirmed memory.

As she stood in front of the mirror, taking in her reflection, another memory hit her: herself dressed in her breast band and covered in red and indigo blood. The vividness of the memory was so intense she found herself having to put in effort towards calming her breathing. Rey looked down at herself, stunned to see that while her clothes were rumpled and sleep-worn, they were stain free. She grasped the front of her tunic and realized that there was a seam of stitches all the way up the front of it that had definitely not been there before. Someone had clearly taken the time to carefully mend this tunic. No. Not someone. Kylo Ren.

Once again, Rey had to focus on calming her breathing as she tried to bring some sense to the conflicting images in her mind of Kylo Ren mending her tunic and the dark knight who declared himself supreme leader of the galaxy. Rey’s eyes caught on the edge of white bandaging under her tunic and she lifted the hem further to inspect it. The bandages looked clean and fresh, but she could not recall them being placed. Carefully she peeled them away from her skin and gasped when she saw the long row of medical stitches that held together what had been undoubtedly a serious wound. It was healing well with no sign of infection. It was clear, though, that it would scar and had most likely been hastily done. 

Rey patted the bandage back in place as she wandered, dazed out of the fresher. She moved the face mask Kylo had made for her back over her mouth and nose and feeling all the energy from her earlier adrenaline rush fade away, Rey walked back to her bunk, laying down and curling up into a ball. 

Rey’s roiling mind settled on the fact that whatever else may be considered fact in life, she could not deny that for whatever reason Kylo Ren had taken care of her and had likely saved her life. Her brain screamed at her that this was incongruous with all that she knew of the man. But then a small, quiet voice reminded her of a time when her execution had been ordered and that Kylo Ren had spared her life. That memory had been tied to such feelings of disappointment and betrayal that it wasn’t a memory she entertained often. She'd hated him in that moment for choosing power. For refusing to save her friends. For not being Ben Solo. 

Rey’s hand went back to her jaw where Kylo had roughly grabbed her earlier. She supposed that was his reminder to her that despite the soup, the stitches, the mended shirt, and whatever else he had done for her, he was still Kylo Ren and he was still dangerous. She decided to be grateful and heedful of the reminder. It wouldn’t do to be lulled into complacency in the presence of Kylo Ren.

Rey tried to still her mind and find escape in sleep or meditation as she had over the previous several days. Her mind would not rest, though. 

Instead of peace or visions of ocean waves, Rey’s mind was flooded with stimuli. Images and sensations that came, some in trickles and some in deluges. She struggled to know which were real and which were dreams and delusions. The presence of warm hands that held her steady while forcing her to walk back and forth, maintaining the strength in her legs, those she determined to be real and true. A memory of warm water on her skin and hair was so faint she could barely touch it. Just a whisper of a memory, really. But as she contemplated her clean, blood free skin the memory continued to worry away at her. Her sense of vulnerability in the presence of Kylo Ren began to eat away at her. Despite the mounting evidence that he’d done nothing but care for her, she couldn’t shake the notion that he’d had the power and opportunity to do terrible things….

But the horror that filled her like a bolt of lighting through her veins was neither due to fear for her safety or virtue. Instead her mind was filled with pieces of dreams. Her own dreams of wide expanses of muscular, scarred flesh. Head flooded Rey’s face as she recalled dreams of tracing that flesh with her hands and mouth. 

“Kriff!” Rey cursed. Why would her mind come up with that? Another disturbing realization fell upon her that she was becoming physically aroused. She craned her neck around towards the passageway where the man had earlier disappeared through. She had no idea where that passage led or what Kylo Ren was doing down there, but she assumed at some point he would return. Her eyes darted towards the messy blankets on the bunk across from her. And it seemed likely that he’d been sleeping nearby each night. The thought of having to look that man in the eyes knowing she was slick and throbbing between her legs filled her with mortification. She didn't dare touch herself, though. She would sooner die of the plague than have Kylo Ren walk in on that. Groaning to herself, Rey turned over and tried even harder to fall back asleep.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * 

Kylo muttered curses as he focused on busying himself in Skylwalker's workroom. He’d somehow forgotten how aggravating the girl could be and he had let himself get goaded into anger. He shouldn’t care what the girl’s thoughts were. It shouldn’t bother him that her first and last thoughts in everything had always been of saving her rebel friends. It reminded him bitterly of her rejection of his hand after he’d killed Snoke for her. 

“Kriff!” Kylo yelled as he threw a box of bolts against the wall.

The days where she had been stuck in the delirium of sickness had been mostly pleasant. Now that she was awake, dealing with the hand fate had dealt him seemed a more bitter pill to swallow. Especially as he was having difficulty drowning out her fluctuating emotions. He rolled his eyes as he felt her bouncing around between anger, confusion, shock, anger again, confusion again…. Hiding from her would be so much easier if she’d learn not to project her emotions constantly. 

He did hide the day away, though, and threw himself into projects. There were enough supplies and parts to keep anyone engaged for ages in Skywalker’s workshop. After a while the predominant feeling coming from the girl was boredom and that was easy enough to ignore. But after several hours had passed he realized what he now sensed from her was hunger. It occurred to him then that she really needed to eat something other than broth. The sense of her hunger reminded him of a memory he’d stolen from her once of a constant gnawing hunger. 

Kylo grabbed a ration packet that he knew would be filling, but not too difficult to digest for a body unused to solid food. Unlike the times before that he had brought her food she was now awake in her bed and watching him as he warmed the rations. 

“This is for you, you should come eat it,” he spoke as he set the dish on the table. 

As she rose towards him, he could feel her hunger and something knitted with it akin to desire. He looked down at the portion of grains and synth-protein and thought it didn’t appear too desirable to him, but perhaps she wasn’t used to finer foods. Despite the feelings he could feel coming off of her, she just sat at the table and stared up at him, not eating. He sensed there was a blush under her mask as he looked down at her. Definitely a sense of embarrassment. Oh. The mask.

“I’ll leave so you can eat. Please remember to wash the dish and your hands when you’re done.”

Back in the workshop Kylo ate his own portion of rations and felt out towards the girl as she ate. He didn’t know why he dwelled on her emotions as he ate. Perhaps because at least for the moments they were no longer bouncing back and forth between anger and confusion. He had no sympathy for either of those feelings from her. Hunger, desire, embarrassment, and satiety, these were more interesting emotions. He could feel as the hunger faded and could tell that she must have eaten her fill. The desire and embarrassment were still there, though… And Kylo honestly couldn’t decipher as to why, but the puzzle intrigued him. 

He continued to passively dwell on the mystery of her emotions as he went back to his projects. The boredom, desire and embarrassment were still there and were joined by…. Hatred? The unusual combinations were becoming more intense and that’s when it struck him. Kylo dropped the tool he’d been holding when he recalled the shape and feel of her desire from a dream of hers he’d once touched at the edge of within her consciousness. It wasn't a desire for food or for something to entertain her. It was arousal. The girl was spinning in a cycle of arousal, embarrassment, and hatred. 

Now that Kylo had a name for the emotion he could not tear his focus away from it. He dreaded to think which of her rebel friends she was so intently focused on. The trouble was that now that he knew what he was sensing it was difficult not to become stuck in a feedback loop. Knowing that she was upstairs dwelling on her own arousal brought on his own with such an intensity that he didn’t know where hers ended and his began. Kylo groaned. It appeared that if he wanted to get any work done he would have to find a way to keep the girls brain engaged on something other than arousal. Maybe a nice boring book…. 

Farther into the night than he would ordinarily have worked, Kylo struggled to stay focused on his tasks while forcing down his own arousal and vainly attempting to drown out the girl’s. He worked past the point that his eyes blurred and he knew he’d just have to redo everything in the morning. He didn’t want to risk the girl still being awake when he went to bed, so he kept pushing himself past the point of exhaustion. Finally knowing it was useless to keep putting it off he tied his mask back on and ascended the stairs towards the comfort of his bed. 

After days on end of sleep Rey found that her body refused to sink back into slumber. She spent the entire day conflicted between the emotional exhaustion involved in actively thinking about her predicament and the boredom of just sitting with nothing to do. And to make things so much worse, the arousal that appeared at the recollection of her past dreams never did go away. It was an insistent and nagging sensation that left her uncomfortable for the entire day. Her mortification only intensified when Kylo had come upstairs with a plate of food for her and the sight of him fueled the slick heat that tormented her. She tried to focus all her energy on her hatred of the man, but somehow that only made it worse. She just spun deeper and deeper into a vortex of misery. As the long hours passed she felt herself nearing sleep but never falling into it. 

She was so very, very close to blissful dreamland when the sound of Kylo’s footsteps jerked her awake. She lay as absolutely still as possible as he approached and tried desperately to make her breathing calm. As he came nearer, though, it occurred to her that he brought with him the scent she’d identified as his from the helmet. She desperately wanted to squirm and clench her thighs together to ease the heat that was only fueled higher by his scent. She sighed in relief when she heard him turn back towards the fresher and shut the door. 

At the sound of him turning on the spray of the shower Rey shifted herself to flop onto her back, sighing again and staring up at the rock above her head while she listened in on his movements. Rey's brows furrowed and then her eyes widened when it occurred to her just how well she could hear his movements in the shower. She quieted her own breathing and focused on the sounds. Her hand flew to her mouth to cut off her gasp when she identified what could only be the sounds of him masturbating. He must have thought she was asleep because he was Not. Being. Subtle. 

Finally ceasing to give a fuck about much of anything anymore, Rey reached her hand down the front of her pants and began rapidly rubbing her clit. She tried to keep the noise down even as she listened to the sounds of slapping, cursing, and moaning coming from the shower. Rey bit off her own moan and bit her lip as her body seized and pulsed in the quickest orgasm she thought she’d ever brought herself to. After a day of frustration the release was a very welcome one and it took almost no time at all for her finally to sink deep into slumber. 

Kylo had been halfway towards his own orgasm when he realized a change in the girl’s emotions meant she was definitely awake. Awake and shocked and still very aroused. “Fuck!” he shouted between groans. He imagined her listening in on him, but the thought was so erotic it just fueled him to pump faster at his member. He came as he sensed her emotions being flooded with satiety. A different type than the fullness in her belly after dinner. Kylo groaned again as he imagined that she might have been touching herself while he beat himself off. 

By the time Kylo had gathered his composure and emerged from the fresher he noticed Rey’s light snoring and was thankful for the indication that she was asleep. He definitely was going to have to find a long and boring book to keep the girl entertained over the following days if he had any hope of maintaining his sanity.


	4. Anger and Desire

Kylo Ren was not a morning person. He was more the type of man who dreamed of homicide when any one tried to make him rise before a reasonable hour. So it was with wishful thoughts of breaking things that he woke with the timed light setting blazing an overly bright glow in his face. The real shock was that Rey was also not a morning person.

“Oh, Kriff! Who do I need to disembowel to make that light go away?”

Kylo was nearly tempted to deem her offensive grumblings endearing. However, the extreme lack of sleep he was working with plus the viscerally palpable bad mood emanating off of the girl was only making his own worse. 

“Well you’re lovely in the morning,” Kylo quipped as he got up and staggered towards the lighting switch, dimming the room to a reasonable level. 

“You’re not exactly known across the galaxy for your winning personality, Ren,” Rey couldn’t help but dig. 

Kylo stood glaring daggers at the girl before finally shaking his head and grumbling “you’re welcome. And you didn’t even have to disembowel anyone.”

A low, pained groan rumbled in Kylo’s chest as he eyed his own crumpled pile of blankets. He really wanted to curl back up in them, but he wasn’t sure it was prudent to lay prone so close to the girl while disemboweling was on her mind…. Letting his own self preservation guide him, Kylo retreated towards the lower levels. 

Just as her arousal the day before had fueled his own he now found her terrible mood making him more annoyed and spiteful. It gnawed at him while he busied himself with making a cup of caf. She really was the least grateful creature on the planet as far as Kylo was concerned. It wasn’t like he was looking for a formally written thank you note, but a little acknowledgement would not go amiss. 

The spite burning in his chest led him towards the small data tree that stored old electromagnetic films full of what he already knew to be the most dull collection of books in the galaxy. Grabbing one of the duller and longer ones, Kylo slid it into an aging holopad, which he slipped under his arm before grabbing a packet of rations and heading back upstairs. 

Rey was very nearly stunned speechless when she was handed a holo text and ordered to read it. 

“I’m sorry… is that an order? Are you ordering me to read this?” 

“Yes, I am. I’ll check on your progress.” And with that he’d turned away.

Kylo briefly considered that he may have had an error of judgment when he felt the girl’s rage intensify. 

Rey was not happy. She could not stop dwelling on her frustration with how vulnerable she felt, how the residual sickness left her feeling weak and helpless. Rey wanted the energy to run, to fight, to do something to work off everything she felt. But she was trapped. There was nowhere to run. And even if there were, she could tell that her muscles were atrophying from being in bed for 12 days. And her restlessness wasn’t helped by boredom. The more bored she became the more frustrated and the more restless she became. And the more restless she became the angrier she became. 

And now when all she wanted to do was to run and not stop Kylo Ren had the audacity to order to sit and read a book on…. Rey looked down at the text with increased irritation and confusion. It was titled “A Technical Guide to Horticulture and Permaculture Using Hydroponics In Subterranean Domiciles.” 

Rey really wanted to begin breaking things.

She pushed the datapad aside and focused on the rations Kylo had brought her. Or at least she began eating the dish of grains and dried fruit. Her focus, however, was on listing reasons to hate Kylo Ren. 

She hated that he’d killed Han Solo. She hated that he’d attacked Crait when she’d asked him to help her save them. She hated that he’d declared himself Supreme Leader. She hated that he saw her when she was sick and wounded. 

Every Once in a while she’d glance at the data pad. She hated that too. Rey stood up and began pacing. Her fingers itched at her hip and it suddenly hit her that she had no idea where her lightsaber was. She recalled seeing it on the floor by the hatch at one point, but it was clearly not there any more. Rey’s eyes darkened. There was another reason she hated Kylo Ren. 

Down in the lower level workshop Kylo put all his energy and focus on his project. After an hour of intense hatred being the sole emotion radiating from the girl he began actively to try and block her out. Because even though her anger fuels his own and makes him want to break things, he can’t deny his own hurt. 

Though he tries. Force help him, he tries. But for Kylo anger and hurt have gone hand in hand for as long as he can remember. 

His anger gives way to pettiness and he remembers promising to check on her progress with the book, so he grabs a dry ration pack for her lunch as an excuse and heads up towards the girl.The truth is, he’s in the mood for a confrontation. 

When he gets upstairs she’s literally pacing the room like a caged beast. But before he can say anything and as soon as she’s aware of his presence, she turns on him with a snarl.

“Where is my lightsaber, Ren!?” she demands, fury radiating from her like a bomb. 

It takes Kylo a couple moments too long before he’s able to respond, but he regroups his emotions and schools his face into a dour gaze.

“Seriously?” He looks at her as if she’s a rebellious student and he’s her disapproving teacher. It stokes Rey’s rage even more, which only encourages Kylo to continue. “Look at yourself. You think I’d just hand you a lightsaber? You really do think so little of my intelligence, don’t you?”

“I hate you!” Rey screamed.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he responded with an air of calmness that he knew would irritate her. “Now how much progress have you made on the text I gave you to read?”

“I… I’m not reading the kriffing horticulture manual! You can go fuck yourself!” 

“Indeed….” Kylo reached out with a hand and the datapad flew into it through the force. Fingers flew across the screen and the holoprojection illustrations hovered above it at the same time that a toneless voice began reading the introduction aloud. He then activated a lock on the screen so she couldn’t turn it off before setting it and the ration pack on the table. 

Kylo quickly made his exit while Rey was frozen in shock at his audacity. He was momentarily torn between being irritated at her and feeling bad about his own poor reaction. He knew he was deliberately goading her and that she’d only get more upset. But then a small smirk spread across his face. Maybe goading her was a terrible idea, but he really enjoyed getting a rise out of her.

As Kylo went back to his project he smiled, thinking about how her eyes shined when she was furious. How it brought color to her freckled cheeks when she yelled of her hatred. It reminded him of fighting her on Starkiller Base. She had been a fucking goddess of rage and Kylo had been in awe. Riding on the adrenaline rush of their encounter definitely put Kylo in a better mood for the rest of the afternoon. 

As Kylo happily worked the day away Rey’s mood didn’t change at all. She spent the whole day fuming, but it now entertained him. He’d in retrospect recall that he has notoriously poor judgment, but in the moment he just delighted in the thought of heading back up and seeing her again. He waited hours before heading up, contemplating their next encounter, thinking of the spark of fury in her eyes as his reward. Eventually the rage was combined with boredom and he decided to let her sit with that for a while. 

Finally when he was sure he’d left her to simmer long enough, Kylo took care in selecting a ration for supper that he knew she’d like and headed back up. 

As he came into the room it appeared that she’d worn herself out and was no longer pacing. Instead she sat at the table, head tilted backwards to stare at the ceiling. The very picture of boredom. The robotic voice droned on about automatic nitrogen sensors. 

She looked up and caught the slow, amused smirk that spread across his face. 

“I’m glad to see you’ve calmed down,” he goaded, reaching for the datapad and turning it off. He then busied himself heating the dish of rich stew he’d picked out for her. “Perhaps you could share what you learned today?”

“I learned that you’re a prick. That you’re sadistic. That I hate you. That I want to get out of this bunker as soon as possible.” 

“Really!? I’m pretty sure you already knew all of that, Rey….” The way he spoke her name was soft, breathy, but low. 

It made her set her jaw and clench her fists. Kylo noticed and delighted in the response. 

“Here,” Kylo slid the now warm stew towards her. “Eat up, this one’s delicious. Though you definitely don’t deserve it after your absolutely appalling attitude you've had all day.”

The moment the anger spiked and he saw the flash in her eyes Kylo’s heart began to race. Much later (much, much later) Kylo would acknowledge that he was an absolute idiot. In the moment, though, he was completely shocked and unprepared for when Rey gave out a terrible battle cry and lobbed the entire bowl of soup at his face. 

“Fuck!” Kylo exclaimed as he was suddenly covered head to toe in hot, rich soup. His immediate reaction was to get the hot liquid off of him. Bending over, he grabbed the hem of his tunic and pulled it over his head, using it then to wipe the soup off of his face. Then before giving it a second though, he ripped his pants off as well, throwing the garments into the sanitizer and running it immediately. 

He turned on the girl, eyes flashing with crazed anger. “What was that!?” He bellowed. And then he stopped, frozen as he took in Rey’s reaction.

Her face was the very picture of shock, mouth agape, pupils blown. Her eyes bouncing all over him between his body and his face. 

Kylo’s brows furrowed as he took in her reaction. She looked like she’d never seen him naked before, which made no sense. 

“Don’t... “ he struggled to come up with a response. “Don’t pretend you’ve not seen me naked before. I know you looked.”

Rey gasped and came out of her shock for a moment, turning her whole body so she was no longer looking at him. 

“Why would you think I…” But she didn’t finish her sentence. Because she suddenly remembered. She remembered that she definitely had seen him naked and that it wasn’t a figment of her imagination. Because the angry naked man standing behind her was the exact copy of her angel of death save for the helmet. “Oh…” 

And Kylo was certainly correct. She had looked. She’d taken it all in. Committed it to memory. 

Rey was suddenly completely overwhelmed by everything whirling through her mind. 

It occurred to Kylo in that moment that Rey definitely didn't realize that she was projecting all of her emotions and he couldn’t help but feel like a voyeur. All of the anger was still there from the day, but now there was no way for him to not recognize her definite arousal. Arousal for him. 

That thought hit Kylo like a freighter at full speed. 

He’d spent the previous day convinced that the arousal she’d been feeling was for a lover she’d left behind with the resistance. Now that he knew… This was a complete game changer. 

“Rey…” Kylo cringed at the way his voice came out. It sounded broken and needy in his ears.

“No. Stop. Just, please go away. Go back to your hole in the ground.” Rey’s entire body seemed to shake as she spoke. 

Kylo struggled with his own mind and conflicted emotions for a while. He wanted to stay. He wanted to turn her back around and make her look at him again. He wanted to look at her again. At the heady mix of anger and lust he’d seen shining in her eyes. 

Finally he moved. Kylo didn’t speak a word as he turned around and headed back downstairs. Once back in his workshop Kylo sat and stared blankly at his half finished projects. His breathing came heavy and his eyes were unfocused. All he was aware of was Rey’s emotions.

Rey felt like she was falling and her thoughts overwhelmed her. Her racing heart gave her a sense of vertigo and she had to sit down. She could not resolve the conflicting emotions going through her mind. She’d been so angry all day. Angrier than she’d ever been. Angry at Kylo Ren, the sadistic prick. Kylo, who’d hunted her friends. Kylo who wanted power. 

She’d long ago given up her dreams of Ben Solo. She’d once fantasized that there was a gentle, kind man under the mask who would accept her love. It was easier for her to admit her attraction, admit her longing, for the Ben Solo of her imagination. It was easier to rid herself of her anger and shame if she imagined that it wasn’t for Kylo Ren. 

But when her fury for Kylo was so strong, when she was having a particularly hard time remembering the version of him that had been gentle and understanding, and her mind was simultaneously flooded with the thought of lust…. Well….

All Rey knew was that these were not thoughts she should be having. She’d watched as other members of the resistance had paired up, seen the gentle looks shared, the tender kisses. That’s what attraction between two people should look like. But that’s not like the feelings Rey had felt just now. The things she wanted to do to Kylo Ren were not gentle, they were not tender. But there was no doubt in her mind now that they were very closely knotted to the intense arousal she felt.

Back on the base Rey had tried pairing up like others had done. She’d awkwardly shared kisses that were sweet and made her feel less alone. She’d had sex that didn’t thrill her. Then when she was alone she’d touch herself and think of an intense pair of brown eyes, muscular, scarred shoulders, and more often than not, of a lightsaber fight in the snow that left her breathless. She then learned to force herself not to think about that. 

But here she was angry and ready to rip Kylo’s face open all over again and face to face in close quarters with ALL of him exactly like she’d fantasized about and more. And her arousal in no way dampened the fact that she wanted to rip his face open. And the fact that she wanted to rip his face open in no way dampened her lust. 

But it did serve to intensify her shame and confusion. And that just made her hate Kylo Ren even more. Which only fueled her lust. Rey felt as if her head was going to explode.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

For hours Kylo sat unable to tear his mind off of the girl. He didn’t even pretend to get work done. He just sat, letting his fantasies take over. He’d never denied the lust he felt for the girl. It was his sentiments that brought him shame and made him freeze with indecision when it came to Rey. If he didn’t care as much he knew exactly what he would do to the girl. He’d just take her and make her his. But she wasn’t just some cheap Coruscanti whore. 

So for as much as the sight of her drove him mad with lust and the act of provoking her ire thrilled him beyond reason, he could not deny that the thought of hurting her in any lasting way disgusted him. Though while that care stayed his hand it did nothing to sate his desire. And oh, did he desire her. 

Sexual activities were by no means a new thing to Kylo Ren. He may have been late to the game (thanks to his Jedi training), but once he joined the Knights of Ren they took his sexual education well in hand (literally and figuratively). But it was never more than a physical release for Kylo. It was never about passion. And after the scavenger girl fell headlong into his life he finally knew what the missing piece was. But with her his passion was so overwhelmingly intense that the wait held its own satisfaction that could never compare to what he could feel in the hands of another. And so he waited.

But there was no doubt in his mind now that if he didn’t act in some way he would go mad. He could not remain inactive knowing what he now knew. That she desired him as well. It was as if the entire universe was rewritten with a new set of laws. 

Well, almost… One thing remained the same. Rey still was angry enough and powerful enough to kill him if he wasn’t careful with her. But if he did take care. Oh… the possibilities. 

When Kylo finally emerged from the lower levels Rey was already tucked away into her bunk, lights off and back turned to him. She wasn’t yet ready to look him in the face; her feelings were far too tumultuous for that. She heard him settle across the way from her in his own bunk, shaking out his disorganized blankets. Rey tried to control her breathing, not knowing that her feelings were betraying her to the tall Knight.

“I know you’re awake Rey…” 

Rey didn’t respond. Kylo didn’t mind. He didn’t expect her to. 

“I know you’re still angry. I can feel it pulsing off of you.” Kylo kept his voice low, soft. “That’s okay. I like it when you’re angry. I’m only sad that I can’t see it in your eyes.”

That earned him a scoff in reply. 

For a while neither of them said anything. Kylo simply reached down and began fisting his cock. Slowly at first, curious if Rey would notice. His breathing sped up with excitement. He focused all his attention on trying to read her emotions to see if there was any change. He grinned when he recognized her curiosity. She’d already been aroused. That hadn’t changed since their previous encounter. 

Kylo sped up his movements just slightly and let his breath come out in heavier puffs. He could have cackled in delight when he felt her shock echo across the room.

Still she said nothing. The only sound in the room was his heavy breathing and the sound of skin against skin. He waited. Finally he felt what he was looking for. The underlying arousal from her pulsed and intensified. He could practically taste it on his tongue.

“Do you think of me?” he panted. “At night? When you touch yourself? I know you touch yourself.” 

Still no response. Not verbal anyway. In the darkness he couldn’t see her grasping her sheets in her fists. 

“I like to think of you when I touch myself like this. I’m thinking of how your eyes flash when you’re angry. Are they flashing now?”

“Fuck you, Kylo!” But he recognized the change in her own breath pattern. It was not the same as how she breathed when she was angry. 

The response elicited a small laugh from Kylo. 

“Is that an offer? I admit I’m tempted, but I promise I’m staying quarantine distance apart from you for now. You’re safe from me.” It was important to him to let her know his intentions. 

Kylo was holding back slightly; he didn’t want his fun to be over too fast. He made his breathing slightly exaggerated, though, just so the girl could be in no way unaware of how she affected him.

“It’s okay if you touch yourself, Rey. I know you’re aroused. I can feel that, too. You’ve been aroused all evening. I think it’s suddenly gotten worse, though… You really should take care of it. I can’t imagine it’ll be easy to sleep if you don’t.”

Rey was appalled that he knew these things about her, but he wasn’t wrong in any way. She pressed her thighs together, trying to ease the throbbing sensation, hoping he didn’t notice.

“I wonder what you think about when you touch yourself. Throwing soup on me? Or do you just like looking at me? What is it you like? Because I know you liked what you saw.”

His movements sped up slightly, sounding more obscene than before. 

“Maybe I should just look in your mind? I could.... Hmmmm….. Oh that’s right, you could look back into mine. What do you think you’d see? Do you want to see?”

Kylo didn’t dare push into her mind. Instead he pushed a memory of his own into her mind. One of his own. Of him just the night before, masturbating in the shower. Of him realizing that she’d likely heard him. That she’d been touching herself.

“What were you thinking of?” Kylo honestly wanted to know. “Were you thinking of me? I know you’ve been thinking of me this evening.” 

Kylo’s breathing became even heavier. That wasn’t an affectation. 

“Force, Rey. Do.. unhhhh… do you even know what you do to me? Do you know that I can fucking feel your arousal from two floors away? I want you to touch yourself, Rey. I need to hear you come.”

Kylo had been putting effort into blocking all of his own feelings from Rey, but he finally let loose and let her feel what he was feeling. 

Rey gasped aloud as the sensations of Kylo’s emotions exploded through the force. She’d been unable to feel a single thing from him the entire time and it was like living with a brick wall. But now all of his desire, arousal, yearning, and intense longing attacked her senses. It was one of the most overwhelming sensations she’d ever experienced. Tears sprung to her eyes in response. Not out of sadness or shame or anything she could identify. It was just a simple physiological response to the over stimulation of her mind. 

She felt like her body was exploding and she hadn’t even touched herself yet. She finally flew into action, arching her hips upwards to shove her pants down and reach between her legs. Her own hand slapping wildly against her center. 

"Your.. ungh...your scar…" Even though the room was pitch black Rey closed her eyes tight and turned her face away from Kylo as if that would make her words have not been uttered. 

"Wha… what? What?" Kylo was quickly losing control. He couldn't fucking believe she was actually talking and actually touching herself. He sped up the pace at which he pumped his member.

"I like your scar. It's what I…uh..huhuhhh…. think about!" 

"Kriff...! What do you… uhhh… like… about it? Do I look… dangerous?"

Even through her panting Rey uttered a laugh.

"I like that I … gave… it …. to you!" With that Rey held a memory in her head of herself masturbating while thinking about fighting him on Starkiller Base and she threw the thought at him.

"Fuck, Rey!" Kylo had never been so turned on in his life. The memory she shared with him was the single most erotic thing he'd ever seen. The thought that the violence had turned her on was a fantasy beyond his wildest dreams. He made sure to keep his mind open so Rey could feel what she was doing to him.

The both of them were beyond talking at this point. The sounds in the room were of wet slaps, fast breaths, and lusty moans. 

Kylo came with a shout shortly after he heard Rey gasp and let out a long whine with her orgasm. They lay in silence for a minute. Their breathing seemed obscenely loud in the otherwise still room. 

“Rey…”

“Shut up. Please. Just... shut up. I still fucking hate you.”

“Okay. That’s okay.” And in the darkness Kylo didn’t even bother hiding his smile.


	5. Neural Network Analysis

Rey was surprised that she could feel as soon as Kylo woke in the morning. She’d been up for at least an hour at that point, wallowing in personal shame and had been bracing herself against the inevitability that she’d have to face the man after what she deemed a severe lack in judgement on her part. The surprise wasn’t in his waking, but in the fact that his emotional barriers were still down and he was clearly… happy. Rey rolled her eyes at that discovery. 

It hadn’t somehow occurred to her until the night before that he’d been aware of all her emotions. That in and of itself was a horrifying realization and one she worked on rectifying immediately, practicing until she was sure she’d built a strong wall around her mind. But it was clear that Kylo hadn’t thought to do that himself for some reason. 

“Good morning…!” The way the words rolled slowly from his lips was nothing less than obscenely suggestive. 

“Nope. I am not doing this, Ren.” Rey was sitting with her back to the man and was pleased that he wouldn’t be able to see the blush on her cheeks. 

The cheerfulness and amusement was still flowing from Kylo, despite Rey’s harsh words. The man was completely insufferable. 

“What? Saying good morning? Having polite conversation?”

“Yeah, I’m not doing that. We’re not buddies. This is not something we do.”

Just as she’d felt his amusement before she now felt as his emotions fell.

“I can’t sense what you’re feeling anymore…” 

“Good. That’s entirely deliberate.”

Rey pretended that she didn’t feel his emotions turn to hurt right before he cut himself off from her completely.

She heard as he rose from his bed and stood behind her. She refused to acknowledge him in any way, keeping her back turned to him where she sat in her bunk, focused on her task at hand.

“What are you even doing?”

“Reading. Now leave me alone.”

Kylo chuckled. “So that’s what it took to get you to read a book!? A little mutual masturbation!?”

“Go suck a rathtar, Ren!” She hollered, briefly turning around to focus her glare at him, then very quickly turned back around towards her datapad. “And put some kriffing pants on.”

Kylo stood, sucking his teeth contemplatively as he stared down at the girl before finally walking over to the sanitizer and grabbing his clean pants and slipping into them. No longer being able to sense her emotions was coming as a blow to him. And taking a lot of the fun out of forcing her to read that book. Once semi decent Kylo retreated to the lower levels and Rey sighed with relief.

Kylo knew that getting Rey to open up would be difficult, but waking up to her completely closed off was upsetting. Throughout the day he found himself heading upstairs far more often than he had in the entire time he'd been in the bunker. Every time he was up there she steadfastly ignored him, focusing on the book instead. No matter how hard he tried he could not get a rise or response out of her beyond “I’m reading.” 

Eventually towards the end of the day Kylo brought a book up for himself and sat across from her while she read. That actually did get a response.  
“What in the Galaxy’s name do you think you’re doing?” She asked, glaring across at him.

“Shush. I’m reading.” It took literally all his self restraint to not laugh at her choked off cry of frustration with him. 

Kylo tried very hard to focus on his incredibly boring book without looking up every five seconds to glance at Rey. He failed more often than not. He couldn’t help but enjoy watching her body language. She hunched and shifted and sighed and clenched her fists and constantly looked like she was ready to whip her head back around and yell at him. It was delightfully rewarding.

Finally it seemed she couldn’t resist the temptation any longer.

“There is no way you are actually over there reading! Show me that datapad!”

Kylo bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling.Then he turned the datapad around to show her.

“Principles of Automation and Mechanical Control: The Practical Applications of Artificial Neural Network Analysis. I’m on page 122.”

‘Oh.” Rey’s eyebrows raised and then furrowed slightly. “Is that about… building droids?”

For as much as Kylo had enjoyed any response he’d gotten from trying to initiate her anger, he felt his face soften and some of the tension he’d been holding in his shoulders release. This was the first thing she’d said that wasn’t said in anger, irritation, stress, or panic. It was just a simple expression of curiosity. 

“Um, yes…” Kylo’s heart skipped a beat. “I’m trying to fix a broken droid I found; that’s what I’ve been working on downstairs.”

“That’s…” Rey paused, appearing to be struggling internally with this seemingly normal conversation. “That actually sounds interesting. I’d like to look at it sometime.” 

Kylo did smile. Rey couldn’t see his mouth through the face mask, but she could tell by the way his cheeks lifted and his eyes brightened. 

“Oh course. Today is the last day of your quarantine, so you’re welcome to explore the lower levels tomorrow if you want. And I’d be happy to show you my progress on the droid.”

Rey simply nodded. And that was the end of the conversation. They sat in silence the rest of the evening. Each of them trying to focus on their book and trying to not be caught looking up at the other person in the room. It wasn’t intimate exactly, but it felt surprisingly… companionable. The feeling was one Rey wasn’t comfortable analyzing.

As the night wore on the words on the data pad in front of him began to blur and Kylo could see Rey struggling to focus at all.

“I need to sleep, do you mind if I hit the lights?” Kylo asked.

“Oh, no that’s perfectly fine.” 

Both devices were powered down and they were left in pitch darkness. Rey’s stomach twisted somewhat as she laid down and heard Kylo rustle his blankets.

“Rey…” 

“Stop, no. Please don’t. If you…. If you pull another stunt like last night I swear I will murder you in your sleep. I’m not even joking.” 

Kylo was actually shocked when she lowered the barriers she’d had up around her emotions all day. Now the main thing he could feel was her earnestness and resolve.

“Ah. Noted. I was going to ask… why you hate me.”

Kylo felt Rey’s shock at his question before he sensed her shielding her emotions once again.

“Seriously? You really want to ask me that?”

“Yes. Yes I do. You say it a lot and I’d like to know your reasons.”

“Killing Han for a start. Attacking my friends. Attacking me.”

“Fair enough. Is that all?” Kylo asked, curious.

“Isn’t it enough!?” 

Kylo sighed. “There was a time when you didn’t seem to hate me so very much. When you told me I wasn’t alone. I assume you meant that conditionally.”

Rey couldn’t answer that. He wasn’t wrong. 

“It’s just that in my mind if you’d been able to conditionally decide not to hate me back then is it not possible that the offenses you just listed are by definition … forgivable?” He spoke the last word softly; hope tinged the edges of his voice. 

“Kylo… I went to you because I thought you would turn to the light side and instead you took an army to attack my friends. I don’t think... “ Rey sighed. “I don’t think it’s in your best interests to continue this conversation.”

“Hmm… And you presume to know what my best interests are…?” 

“I’m assuming at the very least you’d prefer I don’t murder you,” she said, wryly.

“Ah.... And what do you assume my interests are at the most that you’d advise me on the best way to obtain them?” Kylo smirked.

“I only said that it was NOT in your best interests to keep talking. I made no mention of how you should go about obtaining any of your … ‘interests’.” The tone of her voice left no room to misinterpret exactly what she was implying by the word “interests.”

“Well that didn’t answer my question at all…”

“Kylo? Shut up.”

“Right.” Kylo had plenty of things he could say, that he wanted to say, but instead he just said “Goodnight, Rey.”

“I still hate you. But… goodnight, Kylo.”

* * * * * * * * * * * *


	6. An Attempt to Mend What's Broken

When Rey woke the lights were already on, but dimmed. As her eyes focused, she saw Kylo Ren, dressed in trousers and a black sleeveless under tunic. His hair appeared to be damp from the shower, laying flat to his head, drawing attention to the fact that his ears stuck out. Nothing about him indicated an awareness that she’d woken. 

He was at the table, hunched over his datapad, reading and drinking something from a ceramic cup. As she watched him sip at the liquid she realized that he wasn’t wearing his face mask anymore. It dawned on her then how long it had been since she’d seen his full face, his angular nose, his thick lips. She lingered on his mouth as he worried at his lower lip with his teeth. It struck her as an oddly nervous gesture. Not one she’d equate with the Supreme Leader of the First Order. 

Those thoughts left her as a new realization hit her.

“Is that caf!?” 

She now had the man’s complete attention. The brows previously furrowed in concentration were now raised as his head turned towards her bunk. 

“It’s…” Kylo briefly looked down at the cup in question as he wrapped his mind around the fact that a response was required of him. “Yes. It is.” He looked back at Rey. “Did you want some?”

It had been ages since the Resistance had run out of caf and had been unable to obtain more. She’d never had it before leaving Jakuu, but once she’d been talked into trying it she’d found it thoroughly addictive and comforting. 

“I would kill for a cup of caf,” Rey said earnestly. 

Kylo’s face was unable to hide his amusement at her words, the edges of his mouth briefly curling upward and his eyes crinkling before he managed to school his face once more. “I have no doubt of that, whatsoever,” he spoke, solemnly. 

He rose, but left his data pad and caf mug at the table. “It’s down below, I’ll bring you up a cup.”

Rey awkwardly nodded her thanks as she watched him retreat. Letting curiosity settle over her, Rey rose and walked towards where he’d left the data pad. Sitting down across from where he’d been she pulled the pad towards her. It was the same text he’d showed her the night before, but now she saw that he was on page 157. She read for a minute without context, but found the technical terms and diagrams comforting and familiar. She startled, though, and pushed the pad away when she heard him approach behind her.

“That’s fine… you can look if you like,” Kylo said as he set the hot cup of caf down in front of her as well as a simple breakfast ration. He then pushed the data pad back towards her.

Once again, Rey merely nodded in thanks. She went to pick up the cup, but then remembered the mask across her face. Setting it back down, she lifted her eyes towards Kylo, searching for approval as she reached back to undo the ties of the mask. He nodded in assent, but spoke nothing, his dark eyes fixated on her face as she focused on undoing the knot behind her head. Her brows furrowed as she began to struggle with the strings.

“Shit,” she muttered as the knot resisted her attempts to undo it. 

Without thinking, Kylo got back up to his feet and walked behind Rey. She jumped slightly when his warm hand brushed against hers. She drew them away as if burned, but otherwise sat still and let him carefully work at the knot. Though she rationally knew the hands meant her no harm, Rey felt her heart racing at the closeness. Kylo’s own pulse was rapidly skittering as he carefully picked at the knotted strings, his hands brushing against her hair as he worked. 

“There you go,” he spoke, barely above a whisper once both knots were undone. He allowed the backs of his knuckles to just brush over the skin of her neck as he pulled the mask away. 

Rey neither thanked him nor looked at him, merely grabbing the caf to lift it to her lips. She couldn’t help but reach up with her other hand, though, and touch the spot on her neck where Kylo’s fingers had brushed.

Kylo carefully sat back down at the table across from Rey. He moved slowly, as if he were approaching a small animal in the wild that he didn’t want to startle. He lifted his caf to his mouth as if to drink, but merely held it there as he watched her intently. 

He studied her eyes as they roamed over the diagram of technical specs in the text. At times they would narrow in curiosity, or confusion, then widen again, seemingly with understanding. Her lips similarly would either purse or open in a silent “o” as she contemplated the information in front of her. And then periodically she’d lift the caf to her mouth and take a sip. 

The first time she took a sip she’d closed her eyes and let out a long, happy sigh that bordered on a moan. Kylo desperately waited for her to do that again. When she did, his jaw clenched along with a similar sensation in his chest. 

He found his mind turning towards the first day he’d seen her, after he’d brought her aboard the Finalizer and was interrogating her. He remembered her snarky response when he’d asked about the droid, how she began reciting the technical specifications for the BB unit. 

Kylo’s mind fell all the deeper into memories. He remembered calling her “just a scavenger,” and though it was in a way true, he now knew she was so much more. His thumb idly traced the scar on his cheek as he entertained memories of their fight in the snow. The fierceness of her eyes, the strength in her blows, the visage of her standing like a goddess of war all flashed through his mind. And then, sweetest of all, the memory she’d shared with him of her masturbating while she’d thought of that fight herself.

“Did you hear me?” 

Kylo gave his head the barest shake, and looked up to the girl’s eyes, realizing that he was being addressed.

“Yes. No. What?”

Rey’s mouth was tightly pressed in a line and one eyebrow was raised as she stared at him. Kylo felt his face grow warm under her gaze. 

“I’m sorry. Can you repeat what you said?”

“I asked if I could see the droid you’re working on.” 

“Of course! Yes!” Kylo was vaguely aware that he was speaking slightly too loud, but tried to cover it up by standing up and stalking out of the room authoritatively as he could. 

Rey had been fully aware that Kylo had been staring at her and keenly aware that he was lost in his own thoughts. His pupils were large and black as he stared at her mouth; she could see his breathing increase as he brushed his scar. He was not subtle. Though he was still blocking his emotions from her it took very little imagination to realize what he was thinking about. It’s no wonder he’d worn his mask as Supreme Leader. The man’s face was utterly transparent. 

As she followed him finally down the stairs at the end of the hall Rey couldn’t help but notice that the tips of his ears were still sticking out from his dark hair. She couldn’t help but look now as their placements on the stairs gave her a better look at him from above. And she couldn’t help but notice that they’d turned pink. She filed that thought away. 

There was much more to the bunker than she’d previously realized as they passed by one level and kept descending. The space they entered was not utilized as well as the upper floor. Half of the space was empty, but the side that Kylo led her towards was apparently a workshop. There were tools and workbenches and spread across the large central workbench was a class three droid, it’s chest plate open and wires spilling out. 

Rey reached her hand out immediately drawn to touch the cool metal of the droid, tracing its shell towards its core where she carefully prodded at the wiring. 

“What did you do to this poor droid!?” She asked as she inspected an interior circuit board.

“Uh… I mostly have been taking it apart to see how it works,” Kylo settled on a tall stool across from Rey as he spoke.

That response earned a raised eyebrow and pointed stare from Rey. “That honestly explains a lot about you, Ren.” She looked back down at the disemboweled droid and sighed. “Well let’s put the poor thing back together again.”

The two of them spent the better part of the day working on the droid. Mostly they didn’t speak, which made the surreal experience somewhat easier. She put all of her attention into the droid and the careful process of soldering wire and fixing circuits. 

They could not avoid speaking altogether, but it was more often than not short statements. “Can you hold that steady?” or “I think this resistor needs to be replaced.” 

They paused for lunch, but it felt awkward and they did not speak. They just ate and then returned to the droid. Having the droid between them made it easier somehow. But even then, Rey would get distracted by little things that took her mind away from the droid. 

She watched Kylo delicately solder a diode into place and she couldn’t help but notice his hands. They were incredibly large, but able to handle such delicate parts with apparent ease. Her mind struggled to resolve her conflicted understanding of the man. It made no sense how he could be so brutal and violent and yet here he was showing gentleness and restraint. She wondered if she would ever truly understand the man. 

It was many hours later when they finally closed the droid’s chest panel back up. For some reason, though, Rey felt her heart clench with sadness when they tried to turn the droid on, the lights in its eyes flashed on for a second, then crashed and the droid shut down once again.. 

Kylo saw her disappointment and frowned. “It’s… it’s okay. We’ll keep working on it,” he assured her. 

Rey nodded. She didn’t know why she was so disappointed; why it should matter to her that they be able to make this droid work. 

She shook her head. “Of course. It… it would have been remarkable to get this fixed on the first try.” She reached out to tenderly brush her hand on the droid’s head. “Do you even know what the droid is programmed for?”

“Oh, yes. It used to be just a general service droid, but it had been reprogrammed to try and add medical knowledge.”

Rey looked up, curiosity evident on her face. “Have you seen it work before, then?”

“A long time ago, not since I was with….” Kylo paused, discomfort staining his face.

It dawned on Rey then that he was referring to a time before he’d left to join the First Order. He’d previously visited this bunker with his uncle

“You mean you’d been here with Skywalker?”

Kylo’s face closed off at this question, but even that was telling. 

Part of Rey couldn’t help but want to poke and prod at those memories. She found that she liked his discomfort for some reason.

“Hmm…. so you say the droid worked when you were last here?”

“No, not exactly. I remember it working when I was very young. It was….”

Watching Kylo struggle through talking of his past was near intoxicating. The way his jaw clenched and his neck flushed. Rey knew she could help him. She could change the subject. The information wasn’t necessary. 

“It was what?” she asked, feigning ignorance to his uncomfortable state. 

“It was a droid in my home as a child. It wasn’t needed anymore, so Skywalker planned to reprogram it.”

Rey looked at the man in silence for a while. She tried imagining him as a child. 

“I did see it here, about 15 years ago or so. It didn’t work then.”

“Hmm… So it probably got confused when Skywalker tried reprogramming it. That’s my guess anyway” Rey was temporarily distracted from her desire to emotionally torment Kylo Ren. A good engineering mystery was just as tempting to her. “I honestly have very little knowledge of class three droids, but I have seen my fair share of reprogrammed droids. Coding mistakes are far too common. Usually because there are conflicts in the chain of command and they end up stuck in an infinite loop. Can I look at it’s program?”

Rey was looking up at Kylo now with no anger, no guile, just excitement and curiosity. Kylo only nodded once as he grabbed the data pad that was connected to the droid’s central processing unit. He pulled up the code quickly, not wanting to take his eyes off of Rey. He was utterly enthralled as he watched her eagerly grab the data pad and begin pouring over the code. 

“Stars, this is a lot of code!” Rey’s eyes widened. “What exactly was it originally programmed to do?”

“Uh… cook, I guess? I remember it was obsessed with making caf.”

Rey stopped short at that particular statement. She lowered the data pad and stared back up at Kylo. She searched his face for anything other than the utter earnestness that she was faced with when she looked in his eyes. And came short. 

“Caf!?” She asked, incredulously. 

Kylo nodded, his face still a portrait of honesty. 

Despite herself Rey felt the corners of her mouth lift upwards and before she could stop it, she let out a peal of laughter. It felt good to laugh; she’d not done so in months. But now as she looked at Kylo Ren, supreme leader of the galaxy, earnestly trying to explain how he was attempting to repair a caf brewing droid all she could do was laugh even more. 

And even as tears ran down her eyes and her sides began to split, she studied the man in front of her. His earnestness had been such an adorable (for want of a better term) facial expression. The discovery that Ren was indeed so easy to read was rather delightful in and of itself. But soon the laughter caught in her throat when it occurred to her that his facial expressions were changing before her. 

The set jaw and steady eyes that conveyed his honesty twisted into a furrowed brow and open mouth that spoke of his confusion, alarm, and shock. Had the man never been laughed at before, Rey wondered. But the longer Rey laughed the more his facial expressions softened. And her laughter died with the realization that the man was looking at her as if she’d hung the stars in the sky. 

Rey looked away at the realization and focused on the data pad in front of her, ignoring the warmth in her face. 

“Well… um….” Rey struggled to regroup her focus for a few seconds. “I guess if you want a droid for the express purpose of making caf we’d have to erase all this extra code. Otherwise it would take a while to discover the error and reconcile the crossed commands. I don’t know exactly what you uh… want.” Rey looked back up at Kylo and instantly regretted it because the look in his eyes told her exactly what he wanted. And it wasn’t caf. 

“Can you please…” Rey sighed heavily. “... Not look at me like that?”

“Like what, exactly?”

“Kriff, Ren. Like you want to fucking eat me.” Rey rolled her eyes.

Kylo barked out a laugh. “I was NOT looking at you like that.” His face slowly spread into a wide toothy grin with his eyes half lidded. “Now I am, though...” 

Rey closed her eyes and sighed once again. “I’m not fucking you, Ren. Okay?”

Kylo attempted to make a sound that implied he was affronted. “I never suggested that, Rey.”

Her eyes slanted and shot over to him in a glare.

“I only implied that I’d like to eat you.” Kylo placed both his elbows on the table and leaned over the droid, edging his face nearer to Reys. He lowered his voice until it was barely a whisper. “I want to taste you, Rey.” Kylo let his eyes fall on her lips. “I want to taste every part of you. And then I want to take small bites out of you, starting here,” he moved his eyes towards her neck. “And then here,” his eyes moved towards her chest. Licking his lips and drawing his eyes back up to her face he continued, “and then I want to eat you out until you scream.” He looked her straight in the eyes when he said this. Jaw once again set, eyes earnest. 

Rey tried to continue to glare even as her heart raced and she found her mouth inexplicably dry, causing her to lick her own lips. She finally broke his gaze and looked back down at the miles of code. 

“The...the code could be edited, though.” Her heart hammered in her chest. “If you wanted to keep the medical programing, I mean. It would just take a long time.”

“I think all we have is time, Rey…” Kylo hadn’t moved an inch, his upper body still angled over the droid, his eyes focused on Rey’s face. “I read the projections on how long it will be before the virus is eradicated. Did you?”

Rey nodded. All the estimations said it would be at least a year before a vaccine was developed, but the virus had mutated multiple times, so it wasn’t known if more time was needed. 

Rey looked back up, heart racing so fast it felt like she was about to have a panic attack. But as she looked into rich brown eyes and felt the warmth between her thighs she knew it wasn’t panic. She swallowed, taking her time before she spoke.

“And what makes you think I’d ever let you touch me?” All pretense that they were talking about anything else was tossed aside.

Kylo nearly groaned with arousal. “Rey….” he spoke her name like a prayer. “I know you want me, too. I know you’ve thought of me. You told me yourself.”

“That doesn’t change the fact that I hate you.” The tremor in Rey’s voice as she spoke made her seem at once unsure and intensely aroused. 

“Does that matter? Does that lessen your arousal in any way?” Kylo’s voice deepened and became rough with lust and just the barest edge of anger. “You’ve shared your mind with me, Rey. You may hate me, but it has done nothing to dampen your desires. Just give in to it.” 

Rey started with surprise when Kylo stood up and walked around the table, but instead of standing over her, he knelt down at her feet, looking up at her. As she looked down at him and saw his eyes glisten with near desperation Rey couldn’t help but feel a rush of power. 

“Show me.”

Kylo canted his head to the side in confusion.

“Show me in your mind. Let me in. Let me feel you.” Rey licked her lips.

Kylo lowered his eyes to the floor, but then dropped the walls he’d been holding up around his mind. 

A gasp came from Rey’s lips as she once more felt his emotions. All of his desire and longing flooded her, but alongside those emotions she was surprised to feel a sense of vulnerability. And damn if that vulnerability didn’t just make her FEEL things. That combined with the heady sensation of Kylo’s own lust pouring off of him made her nearly dizzy. It made it harder to remember what she’d been resisting.

“I want…” Rey paused, biting her lip, feeling around the edges of Kylo’s vulnerability, thinking of exactly what it was she wanted. “I want you naked.”

A huff of disbelief escaped Kylo’s mouth and his pupils dilated as he looked up, just blinking at her for a while. He didn’t break eye content, though, as he reached down to the hem of his tunic and pulled it over his head, tossing it aside. Nor did he take his eyes off of her as he lowered the fly of his pants, then hooked thumbs onto his waistband to lower them as he slowly rose to a stand. He kicked the pants aside as he stood out of them. 

Rey realized she was still gripping the data pad tightly in her hands as she stared at Kylo. “H...head upstairs,” her heart nearly beat out of her chest as she spoke. Disbelief at her own words consumed her, but she didn’t let her eyes off of Kylo as he obeyed her. She nearly dropped the data pad as she rose to follow him. 

As she walked behind him on the stairs his position above her afforded her a view of his muscular thighs and ass. He was absolutely nothing like any lover she’d had before; while her previous lovers had been soft and lythe, Kylo was mostly chiseled planes of muscle. She could not help but appreciate the way those muscles contracted and released as he climbed. Some parts of him were still soft and round, though; parts that made her mouth water. She was tempted to reach out and rest her palm on that soft roundness where his ass began at the top of his thigh. And then the thought struck her like lightning that she’d very much like to taste him as well. 

By the time they got to the main room, though, Rey could feel Kylo’s vulnerability fade and become overshadowed by confidence and a far more predatory emotion. Her own confidence that had led her to order Kylo to strip naked suddenly faltered. Though she was still very aroused, her nerves got the better of her and she was frozen in her spot as she eyed him. 

Kylo inhaled deeply in and out as he stopped and stood before Rey. He still couldn’t feel her emotions; she’d not let those walls down. As he watched her, though, he could sense that now that she’d gotten him naked she wasn’t entirely sure what to do next. Kylo definitely wasn’t going to let this moment turn into nothing. And he let his instincts guide him.

Walking towards her he reached out and carefully rested his large hand on her neck, the pad of his thumb brushing along her jaw. He could feel her rapid pulse under his palm; for a while it seemed like it was the only thing moving in the room. Then when it was clear that she wasn’t about to startle or run away, Kylo slowly leaned over and replaced his hand with his mouth, touching his lips above her pulse, opening up and reaching out until he felt the rapid beat against his tongue. 

Moaning softly, Kylo moved his hand down her neck until his thumb rested along her collarbone and he followed the path with his mouth. His lips on her neck were a whisper, his tongue occasionally tracing a wet path, his teeth gently scraping, softly nipping. He paused his journey when he reached the base of her neck, his mouth meeting the curve between neck and clavicle. As if it were her mouth, Kylo kissed that spot in earnest, sucking and licking and moaning against it. 

While his mouth fixated on its prize, Kylo’s hands moved to Rey’s shirt and began pulling it up over her breasts. Meeting no resistance, he released his mouth from her flesh in order to pull the fabric over her head. All his focus then moved towards the removal of her breastband. His eyes did not move from her chest as he unraveled it. As soon as her small, but plush breasts came into view Kylo attacked them with his mouth. 

The soft flesh was everything he imagined it would be. Delicate and supple mounds that tasted like they would bruise under his lips so easily. Having her under his mouth was almost overwhelming. He wanted all of her and he never wished to stop tasting her. His breath was heavy and wet as he worked at the underside of one breast with his mouth, leaving hot, wet stripes in his tongue’s wake as he teased against her nipple with his nose.

His large, heavy hands fell to Rey’s waist and began pushing the cloth down and away; those warm palms cupping her buttocks before they traveled down the back of her thighs, leaving her naked in their wake.

Reluctantly Kylo moved his mouth away from her breasts and trailed kisses down her abdomen, stopping to lick a while at her belly button. While he did that he carefully reached behind one knee and lifted it so he could move her pants off over her foot, then he repeated the motion with her other leg.

Finally she stood before him, completely naked save for her arm bands. Kylo knelt down, sitting back on the back of his feet and briefly looked down her body from breast to toes before leaning forward and holding onto her, pulling her close to him. He palmed her ass in his hands and he drew her close to him. He briefly kissed her lower belly before nestling his chin on the dark hair between her legs and keeping his face pressed close to her flesh, he raised his eyes up towards hers. 

Kylo felt as if something hard and cold were pressed against his chest when he looked up and saw that Rey was standing stiff with her eyes closed and lips pressed shut, face angled away from him. He fell back away from her, dropping his hands to his sides. The feeling in his chest turned into a squeezing, nauseating sensation. 

He immediately closed his mind off from her. Between confusion, hurt and anger he barely knew what he felt and didn’t want her looking inside at those emotions before he’d managed to control them. He was becoming overwhelmed with the ugly thought that she’d led him on. He had no interest in having her as a reluctant participant.

Kylo tried to control his breathing as his mind whirled through a vortex of bitter thoughts. Could he have misread her intentions so badly? Why would she have asked him to undress before her if she didn’t want this? He was angry that she’d closed her mind off from him, embarrassed that he'd opened himself up to her. Hurt that she didn’t want him.

Kylo stood up and looked down at her. “This is not what I want. I have no need of a passive whore.”

Rey’s eyes immediately flew open and honed in on his face. 

“Are you serious!?” Mortification struggled against pure rage for dominance within Rey. “How dare you!” Her own vulnerability reached out and began taking hold of her like strangling vines. “Is it fucking funny to you to lead me on like this? You really are a monster,” hardness touched her eyes as she glared at him. 

“Is that really what you think of me?”

The cold stare that Rey met him with afforded him no alternate answer save for the fact that that was exactly what she thought of him.

The hurt surged painfully in Kylo’s chest. Apparently nothing he would do could erase the monster she saw in him. But he tamped the hurt down under his anger and frustration. 

“Fine.”

With no warning, Kylo lunged at her and grabbed her by the waist in his strong arms, holding her tight to his hip and bending her over. “Maybe your problem is that you want me to be a monster. Is that it? Is that what gets you off?”

Kylo fully expected the loud and heavy smack that he placed on her ass to fill him with satisfaction. The truth was he had no time whatsoever to contemplate what it made him feel to hit her, for the second his hand landed with a sting he found himself thrown violently backwards, his body crashing against the wall of his bunk.

Rey’s eyes burned with fury as darkness combined with lust to rise, thick and hot around her as she watched Kylo’s mess of limbs attempt to right themselves. 

“I didn’t say you could get up,” she said firmly when Kylo’s shocked eyes found hers.


	7. Crash

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mind the tags

Kylo’s mind raced, trying to keep up with the sudden divergence in how he’d imagined the evening’s events going. It was a shock to say the least to have been flung across the room and it was even more of a shock (if that were at all possible) to realize that the look in Rey’s eyes said nothing short of the fact that he was her next meal. And that fact didn’t bother Kylo in the slightest. 

It should not have come as a surprise that she was so mercurial. Kylo himself was given to changing his moods at the drop of a hat. But he was definitely at a point where he wished he had some sort of instruction manual or user guide to help him navigate whatever was happening between the two of them. So far all he knew was that gentle kisses were not as appreciated as he would have thought, spanking her was a no-go, and whatever was about to happen was a definite yes. Probably. Most likely.… He certainly hoped.

Reaching out with the force, Rey manipulated his body like a rag doll, folding his long limbs and muscular torso until he was on his knees, bent over as if in supplication, his ass facing her. 

“It’s for me to decide what I do or do not want; not you.” Rey stepped closer to him and found her arousal spiking alongside her anger. She looked down at his rounded ass and finally laid her hand on it.

Kylo held his breath when he felt her cool hand cup his ass. He struggled to comprehend what was happening, but felt his breath increase as she began to massage his muscular flesh. 

“I do like looking at you,” she spoke after a short while. “I like you like this; you have a truly lovely ass.” She slowly traced her thumb along the cleft of it, before stopping to massage it once more. Then, just as he had done, she raised her hand up and brought it down with a noisy slap. 

Kylo cried out in surprise, but found he was bound in place by the force. “Rey….” he groaned out. But whatever else he might have said was cut off by a gasp when he felt her mouth come down, soft and wet against the spot she’d hit. 

“There,” she said lustily, “now I’ve had a taste, too. It’s quite the surprise. Who knew the supreme leader would have such a tasty ass?”

Before Kylo could respond she’d lifted her hand up and brought it down hard against the opposite cheek. She then treated that cheek just as she had the first one, with gentle kisses and licks. 

“Well Kylo, tell me, is this what you want?” she asked as she grabbed as much of his ass as she could in her hands, thumbs just barely teasing apart his cleft. “I’m hardly a passive whore now, am I?”

Kylo found himself able to shake his head, “no.”

Rey continued running a thumb up and down the cleft of his ass, never reaching the center, but teasing at it, then rained down a couple more slaps. It pleased her to see the color rise to those sweet cheeks.

“Why don’t you tell me what you want, then?” Rey was almost amazed at her boldness, but she found the spike in her arousal at the sight of Kylo Ren bent over like this came with a confidence she’d not felt before. 

“Do you like me touching you? Did you like me spanking you?” Rey angled her body around to get a better look at Kylo’s face. Though pressed into the mattress she saw his eyes were closed.

“Look at me Kylo,” she ordered.

His eyes opened and he tried to crane his neck in order to focus on her face. She couldn’t tell what he was thinking, but she could see that his breathing was coming heavy and fast.

“Do you want me to stop? Have you had enough?”

Kylo closed his eyes again at that question, but his tongue darted out and he licked his lips before saying, very quietly, “no.”

Rey then caught in the corner of her eye the sight of his very, very hard cock and a wide grin spread across her face.

“Mmmm…. I see…” Rey moved back to focus on his ass, gently massaging it. “And what is it you want more of?” She brought her hand back down in another slap. “More of this? Do you need to be punished?”

Kylo moaned lustily, but didn’t answer.

Rey leaned down and licked the slightly reddining cheek. “You didn’t answer me, Kylo. What is it you want more of?” She backed away slightly so she was still near, but no longer touching him. 

“Yrmnngthh..” Kylo mumbled, his face pressed firmly into the mattress beneath him.

“Nope, I didn’t catch that.” Rey brought her hand down hard on the other cheek. “Did you say you wanted to be punished?”

“No, I want….” Kylo paused, struggling to get out the words.

SMACK

“....Your mouth….please.” Kylo finally whispered.

Rey’s mouth fell open. “Kriff, Ren…” She suddenly felt as if her whole body was a fire with the intense arousal she felt at the sound of Kylo Ren begging for her mouth on his ass. 

Rey placed her hands back on his ass, partially to steady herself as her head spun. She stood there a while, mindlessly rubbing her thumbs along his soft flesh while she focused on her breathing. 

“You’re so fucking hot like this,” she murmured as she leaned over to gently place her teeth along the cleft of his ass.

Kylo found that Rey’s force hold on him was strong enough that if he had truly wanted to be released it would take some effort. He also found that it was loose enough that he could wiggle his ass backwards, seeking out the wet heat of her mouth that he craved. She nibbled and nuzzled and teased at his ass and he could not help but worry that teasing is all this encounter would lead to. 

“Shit, Ren…” Rey muttered into Kylo’s flesh. “You’re so hot for this aren’t you?”

She couldn’t help but draw it out once she’d realized that he had been trying to follow her mouth and guide her to where he wanted her. But she also really wanted to see if she could make him moan and cry out 

Rey pulled her head back slightly so she could watch as she pulled his cheeks apart with her hands. She then brushed the pad of her thumb right across his tight hole. A euphoric sensation jolted through her at the sight of his muscles clenching in response to the touch. 

“Is this where you want my mouth, Kylo?” she asked, her voice low and deceptively steady considering how her heart felt as if it were beating out of her chest. She continued to rub her thumb in circles along his sensitive skin while leaning in close enough that he could feel her heavy breath as well. 

Kylo felt his face become red hot as he listened to her question and felt the heat of her breath against his hole. This was definitely nothing akin to how he’d imagined a sexual encounter with Rey going (and he’d imagined it quite a lot). It was, however, not outside of the realm of sexual activities he was familiar with. And to have Rey offering to touch him in this way was erotic beyond his wildest dreams. 

“Well? I need to hear you say it.”

“Yes…..” Kylo hissed between clenched teeth. 

He then gasped loudly and jumped when he felt her entire mouth clamp down around his hole. Rey grabbed hold of his hips with both hands to keep him from jerking away from her as she pressed her face even harder against him.

Considering how closed off and shy she’d appeared when Kylo had had his mouth on her, she certainly wasn’t holding back now. Her fingers dug into his hips as she drove her tongue mercilessly into him. And Kylo certainly felt at her mercy.

Despite her firm grip on him, he couldn’t help but rock his hips and squirm against her face as she fucked his ass with her tongue. Lusty pants and moans fell from his lips as he relished in the incandescent sensations she was inflicting on his core. 

Rey had never been so deliciously aroused as she was now to see and feel Kylo Ren come unraveled under her in this way. She removed her tongue and carefully nibbled with her teeth along his sensitive hole before asking “can you come just by this?” She immediately drove her tongue back in while she waited for his reply. 

“No…” he continued to pant heavily as he grappled at the sheets beneath him with his fists.   
“… More…” was all he could get out. 

Kylo shivered when she hummed against him in response, but then balked when she drew away from him completely. He once more tried to crane his neck around to see what she was doing. He tried to move his shoulders from where she was keeping them pinned with the force, but he found that she was still holding him in place. 

“No, I’m not done with you, don’t worry,” she said.

Kylo watched her eagerly as she lifted one leg and reached between her legs, touching herself. He let a heavy huff of air out of his nose and he looked on. He could smell her arousal and hear how wet she was as she worked against her core with her fingers. 

“This will help you,” she whispered, low and deep before closing her thighs once more. 

Kylo tried to turn his neck as far as he could to figure out what she was doing next, but once she moved behind him he could only wait. “Kriff!” he shouted when she’d slipped one of her fingers, wet with her own slick, inside of him. 

It wasn’t long before she began attempting to work a second finger into him and Kylo closed his eyes, forcing himself to relax against the intrusion. While her fingers were certainly more slender and delicate than those of the last set of hands that had done this to Kylo Ren’s ass, he found that she was surprisingly far less hesitant and gentle. 

“There you go….” she sighed once his ass swallowed two of her fingers to her first knuckle. She began sliding them in and out as she began a litany of encouragement.

“You’re doing so well…. Look at you taking this from me… Stars you’re such a good little slut…”

As she drove her fingers in all the way she found her way to his prostate and began working against it at a pace that wasn’t exactly punishing, but was just this side of overwhelming for Kylo. And then, she leaned down and added her tongue back to his hole. 

Kylo’s moans and cries filled the room seemingly without care now as he writhed against her fingers. 

"I want you to come for me, Ren. Touch yourself." 

“F...fuck!” Kylo cried out as he brought a shaking hand down to his erection. It took very little between his grasp on his cock and the sensation of being fucked by Rey’s fingers and tongue for Kylo to buck under the force of his orgasm. The sound of his spend made wet smacks as it landed on his mattress. He rolled his hips back against Rey’s mouth as he milked his cock of the last of his seed. 

“Mmmmm….” Rey sighed as she pulled her fingers out of his hole. She placed a couple of kisses right on it before standing up straight once more to look down on Kylo. Finally she eased her grip on his hips as well as her force hold that had held him in place. 

“Turn over,” she ordered as she gave one of his hips a shove, encouraging the rest of him to roll over until the large man was on his back. She enjoyed looking over him, his long, thick limbs splayed limply against the bed, his hair stuck to his temples and forehead, beaded with perspiration. His eyes were heavily dilated and black, his plump lips red and parted as his breath continued to come out in pants. 

Rey kept her eyes on his mouth as she placed a hand on one of his knees and used it as a hand rest while she stepped up onto the bed. She straddled his torso and then braced her hands against the wall of the bunk for support as she carefully knelt down above his face.

She did at that point move her eyes up from his mouth to meet his own surprised stare. She didn’t speak a single word, just steadily met his eyes as she lowered her wet cunt over his mouth. 

There was not a second of hesitancy from the man as his large hands grabbed hold of her hips and dove his tongue into her core. Rey continued to brace her hands against the wall as she rocked against his face.

“Yes…. fucking eat me….kriff… ah!” Rey continued to murmur meaningless sounds as her core was ravished by the hungry mouth beneath her. Teeth, lips, and tongue all worked in unison against her sensitive flesh bringing her higher and higher towards a frenzy of sensation ripping through her entire body. 

As she tipped nearer towards her orgasm, Rey reached down between her thighs and grabbed a handful of Kylo’s raven locks between her knuckles and used it as purchase against her sense of vertigo that threatened to strike her down. She screamed loudly as her orgasm finally tore through her in intense waves that pulsed from head to toe. Kylo held fast to her, continuing to torture her until she finally had to reach a hand between her and Kylo’s mouth to stop him. 

“That’s enough…” 

Kylo’s hands fell back down on the mattress at her words, allowing her to rise back up and crawl off of him. When Rey looked back at him his face was covered in her slick, just adding to the image that he was thoroughly wrecked. 

They sat a while, staring at each other; the only movement was their chests rising and falling as they fought for breath. Rey swallowed hard, not knowing what to do or say.

Kylo was the one who finally broke the stillness. “Rey…” he spoke as he reached a hand out towards her. 

Rey carefully watched the movement of his hand as it spanned the distance between them. When it finally rested on her thigh she gasped and jumped up off of the bed as though burned. She kept walking without looking back, propelled forward as she headed towards the stairs, leaving Kylo alone.

He lay unmoving for a while, his eyes resting on the empty spot left behind by Rey. She’d never opened her mind back up to him, so he still had no idea what she was feeling. Kylo furrowed his brows and sighed deeply. 

Finally he rolled back over and eased himself up and off of the bed. Heading towards the fresher he tried to ignore the twinges he felt in his body. The shower felt good, but he was left feeling… empty. 

As he dried himself off he struggled with whether to go follow Rey or leave her alone. He couldn’t deny his desire to follow her, but tried to firmly tell himself that if she’d wanted his company she’d have stayed. Instead he busied himself with changing the sheets on his bed and then laid in the silence a while. 

Despite it being a late hour and his body feeling worn out Kylo found his mind couldn’t rest. He kept replaying every interaction he’d had with Rey that day, from her asking for caf to her fucking his face. He knew that their history was … complicated at best, but he still felt that he was missing important pieces of information about the girl. He kept seeing her face closed off and turned away from him. Then his thoughts turned towards his shock at being thrown against the wall by her. 

Kylo pursed his lips and uttered a low, resolute hum as he climbed back out of his bunk. He got up with some semblance of determination and headed down the stairs. He first stopped at the workshop where he found his discarded pants, which he slipped back on before he began his search.

He finally found her on the level with the rows upon rows of shelving. She was in the far corner, curled up on the floor. Carefully, he knelt down beside her and, not touching, he peered at her face. She was asleep, with red eyes and tear tracks down her face. Kylo grimaced as his chest clenched at the sight. 

“Oh, Rey,” he sighed. 

Carefully, Kylo reached under her and pulled her up into his arms, cradling her close to him as he carried her back upstairs. 

When he placed her in her bunk, he pulled her covers up to her chin, careful to not touch more of her than was necessary through the whole process. 

She woke, though, and as soon as she saw him, the tears began to fall again. 

“Fuck… shh, shh….I’m sorry,” Kylo put his hands up, palms facing her as he spoke. “Don’t cry, okay? I’m not gonna hurt you; you’re okay.”

Rey’s face scrunched up behind her tears and she looked at him in confusion.

“I… I fucking hurt you. I’m the monster,” Rey got out through her tears. “I’m the one who’s sorry.”

It took a long moment for Kylo to grasp what she was saying and why she was saying it.

“You didn’t hurt me Rey.”

The look on Rey’s face clearly said that she didn’t believe him.

“Well… there are different kinds of hurt, Rey. But…” Kylo paused to try and collect what he wanted to say. “Rey I’ve spent so, so long thinking about what it would be like to be intimate with you… And, if you’re crying at the end of it then I’ve clearly done something wrong. And I’m sorry.”

Rey’s tears kept falling and the look of confusion on her face didn’t alter in any way.

“Rey, you are incredibly powerful and … pretty scary, honestly, but I promise, you are not a monster; you’re a fucking godess.”

Kylo reached out and wiped the tears away from her face, then wrapped his hand through her hair and brought his forehead close until it was touching hers. He just stayed like that for a while, just touching foreheads, amazed that she let him.

Finally he spoke again. “I enjoyed everything we did today, Rey. I don’t remember a day I enjoyed more than this one. But I promise I won’t touch you again unless you want to and I’m gonna say only if we have a long talk about boundaries. Okay?”

He felt her head nodding under his own.

“Okay. Good night, Rey.” Kylo stood up and turned off the lights, crawling into his own bed across from her.

He listened to her soft breathing in the dark, glad that she had stopped crying.

“Good night, Kylo,” Rey whispered in the darkness.


End file.
